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If walls could talk, stories would flow from 700-year-old Jaggards, a Jacobean manor house once owned by the family of Oliver Cromwell.
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stories → see → Cromwell
With original features dating back to the Middle Ages, the eight-bedroom sand-coloured Bath stone house was put on the market for £3.5million two years ago.
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house → date → 3.5million
Country Life described Grade II-listed Jaggards as 'the perfect English country retreat from the modern world' adding it was a 'graceful and elegant country home'.
But two years on the property is still up for sale, despite several viewings and its owner has knocked £1.5million off the asking price, with the offers of £1.95million being considered for the house, sitting in rolling countryside at Westwells near Bath.
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offers → describe → Bath
Even given the instability of the housing market, that's one hell of a drop.
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that → give → drop
The 700-year-old Jaggards, a Jacobean manor house once owned by the family of Oliver Cromwell, is up for sale for £2million
One reason could be plans to build a £250million 'mega' AI data centre less than half a mile away.
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reason → own → centre
The huge data shed will be 61ft tall at its highest point and 600ft long, which opponents say could hold at least two jumbo jets.
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opponents → say → jets
The contentious building will be on former Ministry of Defence (MoD) land, known locally as the Donkey Field, five miles from where Queen Camilla has a bolt hole at Ray Mill House.
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Camilla → know → House
Government sources insist the building is vital for national security.
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building → insist → security
Although ministers rarely mention Crown Hosting and it never appears in the newspapers, its services are indispensable to the modern British state.
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services → mention → state
Across an undisclosed number of sites, mostly on former military land, the organisation has since 2015 stored data for government departments, NHS trusts and other public sector clients.
Ark already has five large data centres on the site, is building a sixth – and has now, despite more than 1,000 objections, been given approval by Wiltshire County Council to expand this seventh building, pending conditions are met – just 164ft from the nearest house.
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conditions → store → house
Furious residents have formed the Neston Westwells Action Group (NWAG) to oppose the plan and although the project was given clearance at a fiery council planning committee meeting in February, there is still much anger.
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project → form → February
Issues which the NWAG say have not been properly looked at include drainage, noise and light pollution – and the fact the village already has five data centres which, like the new one, are owned by Ark.
Retired Royal Navy submarine officer Guy Dabell, 63, who lives nearby showed the Daily Mail around and said: 'It's going to be a complete eyesore, and no-one wants it here, there were more than 1,000 opposition comments but the council didn't really listen.
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council → say → it
The huge data shed will measure 61ft tall at its highest point and 600ft long, which opponents say could hold at least two jumbo jets
Government sources insist the building – an 18-metre-high storage shed for the nation's secrets – is vital for national security
'
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building → measure → security
They promised they will landscape the area, but they have chopped down more trees than they have put up, and you can put up all the trees you like but it's going to be five storeys high.
'
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it → promise → trees
These things use a lot of water for the cooling systems and then there is the noise and pollution as well, it's just going to be awful.
'
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it → use → systems
The council didn't seem to care because they saw it as extra money for rates, around £4million a year Ark said, getting kudos for bringing AI into the area and, it would bring jobs to the village.
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it → seem → village
'Look, we are not NIMBYs there are already five other locations here belonging to Ark but where is the benefit from this sixth one?
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benefit → look → one
It's also going to have a knock-on effect on house prices.
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It → go → prices
People have been unable to sell and taken their places off the market or have had to take a hit and drop their asking price, which isn't good for them.'
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which → sell → them
The Daily Mail has been told of at least one other property close to the site, Sands Farm, which was taken off the market after a year.
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which → tell → year
And another property, a four-bedroom home currently for sale at £650,000, was advised by the estate agent to 'put a wicker fence' around the front garden to obscure the hulking data centre when it finally starts operating.
But let's return to Jaggards, which in the particulars is described as a 'wonderful property, steeped in history, and would make the ideal family home or countryside retreat'.
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which → advise → home
It adds the house is a 'rare opportunity to own a historic and well-maintained country home with spacious living areas and extensive grounds' while local historians also said the property even has a resident ghost.
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property → add → ghost
Other features include formal garden and a historic dovecote with 1,000 nesting boxes and a Georgian outdoor privy with decorative friezes and the paths over the 2.8 acres of surrounding land are shaded with mature oak trees.
The contentious building will be sited on former Ministry of Defence land, known locally as the Donkey Field
The seller Graham Richards, who owns auction house Criterion, paid £600,000 for the sprawling eight-bedroom property set across more than 12,000sq ft.
Mr Richards was reluctant to talk to the Daily Mail but a source close to him said: 'It's a wonderful house and the current owner has done a lot of work on it, descendants of Oliver Cromwell owned it and then it went into the Fuller brewing family for years.
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it → include → years
It's been done up but it still has a lot of the original features from the Middle Ages, Jacobean era and the Georgian and Victorian period, so it really does ooze history, and it originally went on the market at £3.5million.
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it → do → 3.5million
But it didn't shift so the price dropped a few times and now it's on at £1.95million which is quite a hit and well below what it's worth, it would make a bargain buy for someone at that price, no question.
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it → shift → price
There's no doubt the data centre has impacted it but there are other issues as well, the cost of running and maintaining the place are high, but it's got so much potential and history.
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it → be → potential
The owner was one of the objectors to the data centre but he's rarely there and is looking to move abroad so he doesn't get involved with the action group although he's aware of it and knows its potential impact.'
Retired Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Lieutenant Colonel Victor Steadman, 70, who lives in luxury retirement complex Wadswick Green, on the doorstep of the Ark development, is also among those who campaigned against its construction.
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who → look → construction
Natalie Williams, Victor Steadman and Morgyn Dabies are among the furious residents who have formed the Neston Westwells Action Group to oppose the plan for the data centre
He told the Daily Mail: 'Originally the land was bought by developers who were going to build houses, but once they were told they had to sort the drainage out they pulled out and it was sold to Ark.
'
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it → form → Ark.
But they and the council and the local water authority just don't have any idea of the drainage issues they will face; the line of the drains is secret because its old MoD land and there is also a disused mine under there.
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line → have → drains
They talk about landscaping but by removing the trees, levelling it off and then putting concrete down there will be nowhere for the water to go when it rains and the run off has been calculated at 214 litres a second, so there will be flooding.'
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run → talk → litres
Another protester Morgyn Davies, 70, a retired Chief Salvage Officer, told the Daily Mail: 'Twelve years ago we had what they called a "once-in-a-generation-storm" and the place was flooded, houses were six feet under, and people were kayaking on the Donkey Field.
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people → tell → Field
Water was up to our knees but because it was so rare they say it won't happen again, but who is to say it won't and the potential hasn't been looked at properly, Wessex Water and the council just don't want to know.
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Water → say → knees
'Look, we accept there is a need to have them, but who benefits from having this new one here?
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who → look → one
When we protested at the planning meetings the Ark people just said "We are bringing money and jobs, we can always go to Belgium".
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we → protest → Belgium
'Well, with all due respect to the good people of Belgium why don't they go there then?
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they → go → Belgium
This place will ruin wildlife, will bring noise and light pollution and it will be awful, when all the lights go on at night for the security it will be like Las Vegas.
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it → ruin → Vegas
Retired Royal Navy submarine officer Guy Dabell, 63, who lives nearby showed the Daily Mail around and said: 'It's going to be a complete eyesore, and no-one wants it here'
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one → retire → it
Locals took the Daily Mail into nearby woods where the Ark data centre is up and running and a low hum could be heard, which our reporter initially thought was a low flying plane.
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reporter → take → woods
But on approaching the huge complex it became apparent the noise was from the data centre, and it could clearly be heard above the noise of birds.
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it → approach → birds
Natalie Williams, 59, a retired recruitment director, compared the saga to the environmental movie Erin Brockovich, starring Oscar winner Julia Roberts and joked: 'There's certainly enough material for a film here, although not sure I could play the lead.
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I → compare → lead
…and 14 more, not listed.
The Aporia
