The former Simonsbath School buildings will be open to the public for the first time for a Heritage Open Day Festival event on Saturday (September 11).

Visitors will be given tours of the recently restored White Rock Cottage between 10am and 4pm.

They will learn about progress to uncover the history of the place and its significance to the Exmoor landscape.

Plus there will be tours showing work to restore the adjoining wild garden begun 200 years ago, evidenced by the ‘white rocks’ after which the cottage is named.

A project led by Exmoor National Park Authority (ENPA) has seen the buildings saved from dereliction. The work was further fuelled by the discovery of a wealth of letters in a loft in Kidderminster in 2016, showing the buildings’ central role in the story of Exmoor’s former Royal Forest after it was purchased by John Knight in 1818.

The letters have sparked local and national interest, including a new collaboration between Plymouth and Exeter Universities. The two-year ‘Reclaiming Exmoor’ study aims to track consequences of landscape scale drainage and reclamation after the Royal Forest was sold to help inform work to restore the ecological functioning of the peatlands.

Professor Ralph Fyfe and Professor Henry French are leading the research and early findings will be presented at the open day.

Professor Fyfe said: “The sale of Exmoor Forest to the Knight family in the early 19th century must have had tremendous impacts on the landscape, but until recently it has been challenging to address this change. 

“The chance discovery of the Knight archival material, combined with cutting-edge methods in environmental archaeology, has provided a catalyst for new research. 

“This includes being able to recognise past grazing patterns and vegetational change, alongside improvements in dating techniques, such as the use of historic volcanic ash layers.”

An exhibition of the latest discoveries will be on display along with pictures and letters tracking the history of the building from its inception as an estate worker’s cottage in 1820 up to its last use as the village schoolhouse until 1970.

People will be able to speak with members of U3A Minehead, who have sorted and transcribed 300-plus letters written by Knight family members and their staff showing the transformation of the 16,000-acre estate from moorland to farmland.

Rob Wilson-North, ENPA head of conservation and access, who has headed up the project throughout its eight-year duration, described it as ‘challenging’ and ‘somewhat of an odyssey’.

He said: “In the process of revealing the fabric of the building in 2013, we soon realised we’d acquired something very special indeed—a rare survival of one of John Knight’s original cottages, providing a window into his little pioneer community here on Exmoor in the 1820s.

“But the rich treasure-trove this would lead us on to, in the form of thousands of forgotten letters and documents about Exmoor at that unique time, has been truly miraculous.

“It’s been an immense privilege to be involved in collecting and hearing the human stories that have poured out ever since, and to be involved in opening a new chapter in the life of these important

A signing ceremony is being held at the end of the open day to mark the transfer of the buildings from the park authority to the Simonsbath and Exmoor Heritage Trust.

The trust’s chairman Steven Pugsley said: “It’s an honour to be carrying forward this project, which from modest beginnings has thrown open the human story of how our moorland community shaped the face of Exmoor.

“We look forward to working to celebrate this important piece of our heritage and planning how best to make these charming buildings part of community life once again.”

For more information about the project visit www.whiterocksimonsbath.org.