Letter: One way of saving an ancestral home

Sir: I was very sad to read in your report ('Family must bid farewell to their ancestral home', 15 September) that Caroline Colthurst and her family are having to put Pitchford Hall up for sale.

Surely, this is just the sort of property that we need to keep intact for the future, and it is appalling that neither David Mellor himself nor any of his staff felt the decision important enough to visit the property in person before rejecting the Colthursts' offer to give it to the nation.

Perhaps Mrs Colthurst would have received a more sympathetic and satisfactory response had she invited Mr Mellor and his family to stay in Pitchford Hall for a month, free of charge, and paid for their first-class travel to Shrewsbury, before making her offer to his department.

Yours faithfully,

POLLY FAWCITT

Willingham, Cambridgeshire

15 September