Stourbridge's Riverside House project sees long-lost house and garden emerge from undergrowth

A forgotten house and garden have started to emerge from the undergrowth as part of an ambitious project that is breathing new life into a former 19th-century ironworks site in Stourbridge.

The Riverside House project has been slowly but surely transforming an overgrown old industrial site next to Stourbridge Canal and the River Stour since 2017.

Previously derelict for years, the site offers people with mental health problems and learning disabilities the chance to get outdoors and gain practical skills and it now boasts a market garden, off-grid café and craft shop, a wetland ecosystem treatment area to purify greywater, a beehive, a waterless compost toilet and oak framed structures that can be used for activities, workshops, meetings and performances.

It has been painstaking and time-consuming to turn it from a wasteland to something resembling Cornwall’s Lost Gardens of Heligan, but the journey has been worthwhile as project director Lloyd Stacey’s original vision for the site is now starting to look more real.

Towards the end of last year an eye-catching new decorative corten steel fence and doorway was installed where the site borders the canal towpath.

A new pathway has also been created to serve as a new entrance in future, with work getting under way to transform the former walled garden to the rear of the derelict ironmaster’s house.

But most significantly, the Grade II-listed 19th-century house which has been hidden by trees and brambles for many years has started to emerge from the undergrowth.

The forgotten old house, which was once home to the manager of the ironworks and his family, has finally been unveiled ahead of ambitious plans to restore it to its former glory.

Fynn Titford-Mock, a volunteer at the site who has been looking into its history, said: “The building was more or less intact during the 1990s when it was used for storage, but it quickly fell into a ruinous state after vandalism in the early 2000s. I still don't know exactly when Riverside House was last inhabited as a dwelling, but possibly the 1980s.

“The earliest reference I have found so far for the name Riverside is in a local directory from 1895, when the manager of the John Bradley & Co ironworks, Charles Cole, lived there with his wife.”

Riverside House director Lloyd Stacey, who outlined his vision for the site more than a decade ago when it was completely overgrown and inaccessible, said he was delighted to see the house uncovered.

He told the Express & Star: “It’s really exciting to get to this point. It’s lovely to see the bricks and mortar.

“This project I thought was six, seven, eight years into the future but actually it's moving forward.

“We had a condition survey done earlier this year and structurally the building doesn't seem too bad so we've been taking the ivy off. We've put some acrow props up, started cleaning the graffiti and we got a cherry picker in and started dismantling some of the brickwork and some of the walls which were unstable - and we are approaching a major funder.

“We’re through to the second stage and so we're looking at them funding all the necessary documentation needed and reports and surveys to begin to restore the outside of the building and reinstate it as it once was - so that's really exciting.”

He added: “We're five miles away from the Crooked House which we lost, Dudley lost, so this is one we want to save because it's got so much history.

“It’s an early 19th-century ironmaster’s house and it's actually a beautiful building - although it doesn't seem so at the moment, but we've got all sorts of hopes and aspirations for it.”

Future hopes for the long-lost building include turning it into a cafe/restaurant and multi-functional space for community events and workshops and possibly even a living gallery for artists.

Meanwhile, planning permission is awaited to create a new heritage centre on the site just behind the steel fence that fronts onto the Stourbridge Branch Canal.

A planning application was lodged in November last year to Dudley Council seeking permission to convert the remains of a single-storey outbuilding within the three-acre site to create a new facility to provide recreational, educational, craft and shop facilities within the grounds. If approved, around £350,000 is needed to fund the build.

Riverside House is set to open for a Busking for Charity event, featuring performances by musicians and poets, from 2pm to 8pm on Saturday September 12, which will raise cash for good causes.

The fundraiser is open to everyone, and guests can bring chairs, blankets and picnics. Although free to attend, donations will be welcomed and will go directly to support Riverside House itself, Wolverhampton MS Therapy and Oxygen Centre, Tough Enough To Care, Sandwell Visually Impaired and the Dudley Group NHS Charity.

Food and drinks will be available to buy on-site.