Former home of GK Chesterton threatened with demolition

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The former home of the English Catholic writer GK Chesterton is at risk of being bulldozed by property developers.

Octagon Developments hope to turn Overroads, the house Chesterton and his wife Frances bought in the Buckinghamshire village of Beaconsfield in 1909, into a block of flats.

Much struck by the arts and craft design of Overroads and its lovely setting, in 1911, Chesterton commissioned an architect to design "a typically English home of oak beams and wrought iron fittings following the pattern of Overroads."

The reason for the second house was that he needed more space. Originally the new property was intended to become Chesterton's studio.

Yet in 1922, after living for 13 years in Overroads, the Chestertons' moved into their new home, which they called Top Meadow.

They lived there until their death: Gilbert Keith Chesterton died in 1936, and his wife, Frances, in 1938.

In their will, they left both houses to the local Catholic Diocese of Northampton, stipulating that the properties should become a seminary, or convent or temporary refuge for former Anglican clergy who had converted to Catholicism.

Top Meadow was used for this purpose for some years but eventually the diocese sold both houses to private owners. However, while Top Meadow is to a degree protected because it is a listed building, Overroads is not. Last year, its owner put it on the market for £1.9 million. When a private buyer did not emerge, the house was bought by developers.

An initial application to turn the house into a block of flats was recently refused. However, the developers have now lodged another planning application, whose status is pending.

Chesterton's many fans are braced to fight any potential redevelopment. Dr Dale Ahlquist, president of the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton, an international organisation based in America, said: "I am struck by the fact that Chesterton the writer - and prophet - is so well known and appreciated around the world but is sadly overlooked and neglected in England.

He added: "I have had the privilege of visiting Over Roads and I was impressed by how well cared for the property was. It has been wonderfully preserved. It seems rather insane that it should be destroyed.

"To an American, it would be the equivalent of demolishing a home where Ernest Hemingway lived."

Meanwhile Canon John Udris, the priest who conducted the preliminary investigation into Chesterton's cause, said: "I've just been reading GK's Ballad of the White Horse. It would have been in Overroads that he wrote that magnificent poem, which is all about fighting for something even when it seems hopeless. It's great to witness such a groundswell of people, both local and abroad, fighting this latest move of the so-called 'developers.'"