and East Wing. The money received by the original Preservation charitable trust was the subject of an episode of The Mark Thomas Comedy Product, which proved that some of the trust's debts were paid using the National Lottery money earmarked for restoration, as well as paying for private development. With the failure of the preservation trust under Lord Leigh, a new independent charitable trust was set up to safeguard the future of the Abbey. With the ties to Lord Leigh severed, the new charitable trust acquired a new chairman, local business man Tony Bird OBE. In the early 2000s Charles Church built two groups of houses in the grounds of Stoneleigh Abbey, named The Cunnery and Grovehurst Park. The property remains open to the public. The former Orangery now houses a tea room. A historic pump house and water wheel at Stoneleigh Abbey has been restored to its former glory as part of a large restoration project to save and protect structures in the grounds, along with reinstating many of the views and walks inspired by Sir Humphry Repton's designs from his Red Book also on display at the Abbey. Mr Tony Bird OBE Chairman of the Stoneleigh Abbey Charitable Trust has overseen the full restoration not only of the large wheel but also the full restoration of the 1851 Tangye of Birmingham water pump. The repairs to the Pump House were partly funded by Natural England, including replacement of the roof, years of lime scale being chipped off, and the water wheel itself restored. Stoneleigh Abbey Trustee Dorothy Ingle said: “It is wonderful to see the wheel turning and people being able to see how the pump house was used now fully restored to its former glory. The wheel doesn’t pump water to the house any more but it still represents part of the history of how the garden and house was operated 100 years ago." The pump-house was built in 1851 on the site of the Abbey's former medieval water mill on the River Avon. Visitors can now see the restored pump house as part of the Abbey's country park. A historical inquiry In 2016, Judy Stove, an Australian researcher into the life and times of Jane Austen, published a book (The Missing Monument Murders) which investigates a series of scandals at Stoneleigh Abbey in the first half of the nineteenth century. Inheritance contests led to claims about