RESIDENTS of a village which stars in Hollywood films have blasted the National Trust for letting it fall into disrepair.
Disgruntled locals in Lacock, in the Cotswolds, have been left fuming at the state of a number of picturesque properties.
The quite and picturesque village of Lacock in Wiltshire[/caption]
Cantax House, in Lacock is a National Trust property and has featured in Hollywood films[/caption]
But it has been uninhabited for three years and is showing signs of neglect[/caption]
Cantax House starred in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince[/caption]
The idyllic village is often used by TV and film crews as a location for blockbuster Hollywood films and UK television series.
More than 90 per cent of the properties there are owned by the National Trust and leased to tenants, with some complaining to The Sun that many houses are currently standing empty because the charity is slow to carry out repair work.
Cantax House, a stunning Queen Anne property in the heart of Lacock was famously used as a hideout by Horace Slughorn in 2009 film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
But the once-immaculate house has been allowed to fall into disrepair.
The charity has been accused of “dereliction of duty” after leaving the historic mansion empty and rotting for three years.
Crumbling stonework, rotting timber window frames and broken panes of glass at the Grade ll-listed property have accelerated its demise in recent months.
Its once-glorious gardens are now overgrown strewn with brambles.
However, a family of Potter fanatics who had travelled 170 miles from Battle, East Sussex, to see the village said they were “appalled” by the building’s neglect.
As they posed for photographs at the house’s wonky garden gate, father Kevin McSweeney, a 61-year-old gardener and handyman, told The Sun: “It’s in a terrible state, isn’t it?
“It’s been left to rot and if the National Trust don’t start fixing it soon, it will get much worse very quickly.
“It’s in an appalling state and I really am very surprised.
“Aside from the Harry Potter filing, this property is an important building and part of our national heritage. It can’t be left to fall into ruin like this.
“The National Trust need to pull their finger out and get it back in shape.”
Mr McSweeney, his wife Paula, also 61, and 27-year-old twin sons Jack, a classical musician, and Ben, a student, are all National Trust members and plan to write to the charity to express their disgust.
Paula said: “The National Trust get plenty of money from members’ subscriptions, donations and legacies, so it concerns me greatly when I see something like this.
“They have a duty to maintain the properties they own. This isn’t good enough.”
Builders’ tools and equipment can be seen piled up inside the property through the front windows, offering hope the building will be repaired soon.
But workmen at a neighbouring house told us the tools were theirs and the National Trust was allowing them to store them inside Cantax House for safe-keeping.
No repair work appears to be scheduled for the house. It is understood it has been empty for three years after long-term tenants moved out.
Cantax House is not in the shape it once was[/caption]
Cantax House is famous to Harry Potter fans for being where Harry and Dumbledore discover Horace Slughorn hiding from Death Eaters[/caption]
Locals and Potter fans are upset at the upkeep of the house in the present day[/caption]
David Charlton, 63, Jaqi Sheard, 66, are Apothecary business owners in the town[/caption]
Another visitor to the village, who asked not to be identified, said her mother, a lifelong National Trust member, would have been “disgusted” at the state of the property.
She said: “This is dereliction of the trust’s duty. It’s an important house for the village. To be honest I’m not surprised.
“My mother paid her annual membership fee the week before she died and when I wrote to them to inform them she’d died, they refused to reimburse her estate, unlike other charities Mum had paid fees to.”
‘ROTTING AND OVERGROWN’
Harry Potter fans Mark, a 64-year-old retired painter and decorator, and Charlotte, 34, were visiting the famous village from Bristol and were “shocked” at the run-down state of the famous building.
Charlotte, who works with adults with special needs worker, said: “I’m very disappointed to see it looking like this.
“Everything’s rotting and the garden’s so overgrown. It needs fixing up urgently. I hope they get onto it soon or it will collapse.”
Australian tourist Maene Robertson, 27, said: “I’ve wanted to come here for years because I’m a massive Harry Potter fan.
“I can’t believe they’ve let Horace Slughorn’s house fall into this state, though. It’s such a shame.”
Her NHS worker aunt Lisa Collins, 58, agreed. She said: “The National Trust should be ashamed of themselves.”
Locals in the village complained many properties are currently empty because the charity is slow to carry out repair work.
One, who runs a business in the town, said he has been asking the trust to fix holes in his roof for six years – and is still waiting for a response.
“The National Trust is a joke. They make £40,000 a week from letting film crews use the village but the locals don’t see a penny of it.
“But we have to put up with the inconvenience of having roads closed and not being able to leave our homes for days on end.
“I wouldn’t mind so much if they’d use some of that money to come round here and fix my ruddy roof.
“Every time it rains my stock gets ruined. I’ve been asking them for six years but no one in the buildings maintenance team responds, let alone comes round and fixes it. I’ve had enough.”
Mark Prideaux, 64, Bristol, and his daughter, Charlotte Prideaux, 34, were shocked at the run down state of the building[/caption]
Ben McSweeny, 27, Jack McSweeny, 27, Paula McSweeny, 61, and Kevin McSweeny, 61, visiting Cantax House[/caption]
And Lacock Abbey was used for the interior of Hogwarts in all the Harry Potter films[/caption]
The Quintessentially English Apothecary in Lacock[/caption]
Lacock Abbey was used for the interior of Hogwarts in all the Harry Potter films and also for The Crimes of Grindelwald Fantastic Beasts film.
Downton Abbey and Pride and Prejudice are among other films and TV series that have used Lacock as their setting.
Queen Camilla owns a private property near the village, while Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason and chef Marco Pierre Whitealso live nearby.
The historic Wiltshire village was founded in the early 13th century by Ela, Countess of Salisbury, as a nunnery of the Augustinian order.
The abbey remained a nunnery until the Dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century; it was then sold to Sir William Sharington who converted the convent into a residence where he and his family lived.
It was fortified and remained loyal to the crown during the English Civil War, but surrendered to the Parliamentary forces once Devizes had fallen in 1645.
The abbey later passed into the hands of the Talbot family, and during the 19th century was the residence of William Henry Fox Talbot.
In 1944 artist Matilda Theresa Talbot gave the house and the surrounding village of Lacock to the National Trust.
A spokesman for the National Trust said: “At Lacock we have invested over £1.2 million in recent years prioritising repairs to lived-in properties to ensure the comfort of tenants.
“We have no overdue repairs on commercial properties and currently six homes vacant.
“Four are having redecoration and light refurbishment and will be let to tenants again very soon.
“The other two need more significant work and we are exploring funding options – we continue to maintain them in the meantime.
“Money from filming in the village is shared between the Trust locally and the Parish Council – although there hasn’t been any filming in the village since 2021.”
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Cantax House has now fallen into a state of disrepair[/caption]