Charles Darwin’s Shrewsbury home could become tourist attraction
A working party will be set up to look at buying Charles Darwin's Shrewsbury birthplace and turning it into a tourist attraction.
Shrewsbury Town Council has agreed to look at the feasibility of the house, The Mount, being bought.
The town's Mayor, Jane Mackenzie, led the bid for Shrewsbury to take the lead, saying it would attract tourists from across the world if it was opened to the public.
However, at a town council finance committee, some councillors stressed that it did not mean the council would pay to buy the property.
Councillor Mackenzie said: "We have to look at the town's sustainable growth and a main area of economic growth is tourism.
"Acquiring Mount House has become a possibility and I know that there are a lot of people interested including the University, BID, English Heritage, Historic England and the Civic Society.
"All I am asking asking for is for a working group to be set up and for Shrewsbury Town Council to be the lead body."
Councillor Alan Moseley said: "I do not want anybody to think that we by be interested in purchasing the property or taking on the lease.
"I would be very concerned about putting any money into it. I can not see that it would be this council buying Mount House."
Councillor Alex Phillips said: "I would not want to rule in or rule out anything at the moment."
Town clerk, Helen Ball, said that Mount House wascurrently the home of the district valuer and valuation officer.
"The National Valuers office is withdrawing staff from The Mount and the lease is due to expire in 2021," she said.
She said the national company which owned the house was sympathetic and understood the importance of the building as Darwin's birthplace.
Councillor Hannah Fraser said: "Shrewsbury could make a lot more of Darwin and his legacy. If we take a lead in setting up a working party it may be that that could become a trust which could look for funding to purchase Mount House."
Councillors agreed to move forward with a working party.
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Mount House in Shrewsbury was the Darwin family home, built by Robert Darwin in 1798. It was here that Charles Darwin was born 12th February 1809. Darwin spent his formative years at Mount House and it was here, in the gardens of his home, that his love and curiosity for the natural world first flourished. He went on to publish the theory of evolution.
A statue of Darwin stands at the entrance to the library and a controversial sculpture Quantum Leap, commissioned in 2009, stands on the banks of the River Severn near the Welsh Bridge.
