IF property developers had a conscience, then the beautiful Christmas card photo of Lyppard Grange in the Evening News on Tuesday, July 16, would have sent a chill through them.

The Grange is the body buried under new housing at Warndon Villages and its fate serves as a lesson that must be hammered home until it's finally learnt. Once these historic buildings are gone, they're gone for good.

The Grange didn't produce as big an outcry as the Lychgate travesty because it wasn't in the middle of the city.

But, in many ways, this neglect was a worse crime.

Twenty-five years ago, the building stood pretty well as in the photo - a magnificent building, Grade II listed and with the misfortune of being in the wrong place, on land earmarked for massive housing expansion.

As the land passed from one speculator to another, the Grange was just left to crumble.

City council conservation officers did their best with limited powers of legal persuasion, but it was never going to be enough in the face of raw greed.

The Grange was allowed to rot because it was easier and more profitable just to let it go than rebuild and find a use for it, though one developer after another said they would save it.

It wasn't hammered down like the Lychgate. It was just ignored and left to the ravages of time.

Either way, it's gone.

And the same thing will keep on happening to buildings or to green areas if developers aren't controlled in Worcester.

It's too late for the Grange, but perhaps its legacy could be to save those that remain.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED