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ANCLIFF
DOWN
It
was on this piece of land, where the soil was deposited,
that Anthony Dunsdon had the idea of using the redundant
stone reservoir (which used to supply the workhouse with
water) as a possible site for an underground house.
He
asked Hans Klaentschi, responsible for the Ancliff Square
conversion to draw up plans for the project. An application
to build it was submitted to the West Wiltshire District
Council in November 1993.Although it received widespread
local support, final planning approval was not given (following
a public enquiry) until February 1995. Construction of the
underground house by local builders, Shelland & Winter,
began in April 1995 and was completed in August 1997.
The
Dunsdon family moved in at the beginning of September and
began the process of landscaping the huge mound of soil
left over from the excavation for the underground dwelling,
now named Ancliff Down.
Many
of the materials used in the re-making of the landscape
were stones and pavings from the former workhouse school
and from the old reservoir. Specifically, the stone steps
up the banks (slabs from the floor of the reservoir), flagstones
which had originally paved workhouse floors and the standing
stones, dug up when the site was excavated. Also, timbers
from the workhouse were used to make the treads of the staircase.
In 1999, the Dunsdons erected a stone circle with a central
stone and seven outer stones at Ancliff Down to commemorate
the millennium and their seven children.
Anthony
Dunsdon served on the Westwood Parish Council for four years
and was partly responsible for planting over 200 trees around
the parish following the damage done by Dutch Elm disease.
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