A CIVIC Society that won a moratorium on the sale of a historic building has appealed for groups to buy it and preserve it.

Vale of White Horse District Council will be selling Old Abbey House, former home of Abingdon Town Council, for between £600,000 and £1 million.

The Friends of Abingdon has managed to get it registered as an Asset of Community Value under the 2011 Localism Act.

That means the Vale has to put the house back on the market and give not-for-profit groups six weeks to make a formal expression of interest.

The Friends’ Hester Hand said: “Our remit as a group is to preserve Abingdon’s heritage and as far as we’re concerned that is a very important building.”

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The house, which dates back to the 15th century, was once connected with Abingdon’s medieval Abbey and home to several important merchants.

The plot for sale includes gardens, which Mrs Hand said she wanted to make sure were protected for the public to enjoy.

She said: “That bit of garden behind it leads to the formal gardens and flower beds, which were all part of the Abbey precincts.

“They have been managed as a public space for years.

“The suggestion that part of the garden should be sold or made private was something we weren’t willing to accept.”

The worst thing that could happen to the property, she said, was major structural changes, especially to the outside of the building.

But, given its location in Abingdon Conservation Area she said that was unlikely to get planning permission.

The Friends do not have the money to buy the plot themselves, but had it registered as an Asset of Community Value to give someone else the chance.

Mrs Hand said she would be happy to see it converted into a hotel if it meant the building was preserved and the public could still access the gardens.

She added: “It could also make a wonderful cafe.”

She said there was also a suggestion the building could be converted into a community arts centre, with rooms leased out.

Mrs Hand said there had been one “serious bid” by a backer with “some money” that the Friends approved of, but said she thought that had gone.

She said: “Our main concern is just to make sure people know about it.”

If the council receives an expression of interest, it will have to give that group four and a half months to get the money together, or prove it can.

But the whole sale has now been put on hold because the Vale is using the building, which it hasn’t used for years, for council meetings after a fire destroyed council offices in Crowmarsh Gifford in January.

Vale leader Matt Barber said that arrangement would carry on for the foreseeable future but he would notify the Friends when it went up for sale. He said he thought the Friends’ aims and the councils’ were “not too far apart”.

He said: “We still want to see it in public use. If it were to be a hotel or arts centre that would be a much better use than as an office.”