Date stone from demolished Georgian March home goes to town’s museum

A piece of town history is set to go on show in March Museum following a presentation on Friday by a local developer.

The date stone from Mill House in High Street was presented to the museum’s chair Gordon Thorpe and archivist David Edwards following its demolition by locally-based Flintstone Demolition and Reclamation.

The demolition was carried out by Flintstones on behalf of MJS Construction which is planning to replace Mill House, which dated back to 1770 with shop units and one and two bedroom flats.

Paul Foreman, who owns Flintstones, explained: “My company prides itself of reclaiming as much as we can from each demolition project we undertake. On this particular one we managed to reclaim 95 per cent of materials including all the bricks, old fire places and steel beams.

“What we couldn’t reclaim – basically the rubble – will be recycled and used on other building projects.”

Mill House which stood at 74 High Street, next to West End DIY, has been shrouded in scaffolding and plastic for the past few months while the work was carried out.

It is believed to have been built by David Grounds and his family, who is the four times great grandfather of well-known March businessman Freddie Grounds.

In the 1970s and early 1980s it was owned by Maurice Payne who ran it as Maurice’s mini-market. In more recent times it has been an estate agents.

Paul, and Luke Clarke,the project manager for MJS Construction, handed the date stone over and Luke said: “We are delighted that the stone has been salvaged and will now go on display in the museum. It is a piece of the town’s history which will now be preserved.”