MBE Tom Baker's historic Shropshire home is up for sale
The historic home of a man who spearheaded efforts to preserve a nearby medieval tower house in Shropshire has gone on the market for offers around £675,000.
Tom Baker was secretary of the preservation trust which secured a grant of more than £1 million from the Heritage Lottery to safeguard Hopton Castle, near Ludlow.
Mr Baker was awarded the MBE last year for services to heritage.
He and his wife Eileen are now selling the half-timbered home they have lived in for 30 years and which overlooks the tower. Lower House in the village of Hopton Castle, named after the tower, itself dates back to the 15th and 16th centuries.
The tower house was a former Roundheads stronghold, the site of a famous siege during the English Civil War, and it was the setting for the TV archaeology programme Time Team in 2010.
Mr Baker worked for many years to raise the funds necessary to buy and preserve the remains of the building.
He said family circumstances had made a move necessary but he had many happy memories and mementoes of a successful project deemed to be of national importance.
"We worked with enthusiastic teams of dedicated experts to make sure that this part of our history could be appreciated and enjoyed by future generations," he said.
The Duke of Gloucester, marking the culmination of the work in December 2011, officially opened the monument and paid tribute to what had been achieved in a small community.
