Fresh plans to build on the former site of an historic house linked to National Hero Mary Prince have been submitted to the Department of Planning.

A planning application that was submitted last week proposed the erection of a warehouse, accessory buildings and an electric charging station for the Ocean View Golf Club at 2 Barker’s Hill, Devonshire.

The documents showed bathrooms, a canteen and office inside the structure along with space for golf carts and maintenance equipment.

The proposal matched a similar plan put forward in 2021, for which the Ocean View Golf Club submitted a planning application to tear down an “existing warehouse building” and replace it with a new one.

However, Margot Maddison-MacFadyen, of the University of Prince Edward Island, sparked a raft of objections after she found the “warehouse building” was the former Watlington House where abolitionist Mary Prince was prepared to be sold.

Dr Maddison-MacFadyen said that early in The History of Mary Prince, the landmark autobiography that contributed to the end of slavery in the British Empire, Mary Prince recalled being told by her young owner, Betsy Williams, that she would be sold.

Miss Prince wrote that she was then taken to Betsy’s “father’s sister” to be prepared for sale by her own mother.

She described the “sorrowful meeting” at the home and recalled her mother telling her: “I am shrouding my poor children; what a task for a mother!"

Dr Maddison-MacFadyen said that based on historical records, the home described was Watlington House and she urged that the structure be protected.

The proposal was subsequently revised to place the warehouse in a different location, removing the need to demolish Watlington House, but those plans were rejected by the Development Applications Board because of its use of woodland reserve.

Despite the earlier calls to protect the building, Watlington House was torn down in March 2023.

Lieutenant-Colonel David Burch, who was then the Minister of Public Works, said the building was in an extremely dilapidated state.

He added at the time: “We are never going to be able to save every building in this country if everybody who is calling for saving buildings are looking to the Government to fund those savings and they don’t offer up two cents towards doing the work.

“That’s unrealistic, it’s impractical and it’s not going to happen. Whoever sits in this seat is going to have decisions to make like this going forward.”

Watlington House was a family home until 1867, when it was one of several compulsory purchases made under the Bermuda Defence Act 1865. This led to the creation of Fort Prospect and the establishment of the British garrison.

The southern façade of the building was modified by the British War Department but much of the northern section of the property still carries the features of an old Bermuda home.

When the surrounding property became the Ocean View Golf Course — the first Black golf course on the island — the building was converted to serve as the clubhouse.

The building was also used by the Black community for funerals, weddings and other social events until it became a storage area for the golf course.