Eco-friendly centre for Mottisfont Abbey filled with visitors

The £3.5 million complex at Mottisfont Abbey near Romsey is due to open early next year – about eight years after the scheme was first mooted by bosses at the National Trust-owned property.

The new building is going up alongside a small tributary of the River Test that flows through the 1,650-acre Mottisfont Estate.

Contractors have now got the roof on the wooden building, which is supported by stilts with steel pylons that have been screwed into the peat soil. When complete, the complex will house the visitor reception area and National Trust and visitor toilets.

A new 70-seat café will be built in the stable yard next to the former Augustinian priory, founded in 1201 by William Brewere.

The new facilities are being added to meet with the growing number of tourists and visiting the world-famous rose gardens and other attractions at Mottisfont.

Last year around 286,000 people visited the National Trust property.

Mottisfont’s general manager Paul Cook said the rose season alone attracts about 50,000 visitors every year and some of these come overseas.

However, he added that more people that live within a 40 minute drive of Mottisfont are now visiting the property.

“The percentage of our visitors who are local is increasing considerably and now makes up more than 50 per cent. Mottisfont is their local National Trust property – probably because it is the only one in Test Valley,” said Mr Cook.

He added that now Mottisfont is open all year round and an art gallery has been added along with family trails, it has it has become more and more popular with tourists.

Mr Cook pointed out that Mottisfont’s visitor growth had come outside the rose season in June.

“Our gallery exhibitions and family trails have been a great success and give people reasons to come back time-after-time when they can see our beautiful wider estate changing through the seasons too,” said Mr Cook, who added that new rustic looking building is “very eco-friendly” and the foundations are not concreted into the ground.

“The reason for this is so that when the building is decommissioned we can leave the site exactly as it was before we built on it,” said Mr Cook.

Heating for the purpose-built visitor centre will come from a log-fuelled biomass boiler and solar panels on the roof.

A woodburner is also being installed in the reception centre. Logs that will be burnt in the biomass boiler and the woodburner will come from the Mottisfont Estate’s woodlands.

Mr Cook concluded: “We are absolutely delighted that the new visitor facility is well under way now and finally taking shape.

“We’ll be able to welcome visitors properly; have toilets near the car park where they are needed most; have a shop at the front so that people don’t have to carry purchases so far to their cars and a brand new, additional café in the stable yard where the shop is currently.”