Heritage

Consent granted for family annex

We are excited to announce that we have been granted planning and listed building consent for the conversion of a Grade II 18th century listed barn into a family annex.

The proposal transforms the old loose box into living space creating a family annex attached to the house, whilst improving levels of insulation. To maintain the external appearance of the barn, existing openings were used for new windows and doors. Vestiges of the old barn were retained through keeping one of the mangers, a band of the cobbled stone floor was maintained around the perimeter and memories of timber stable partitions maintain on the floors and walls. Boarding from the first floor will be partially removed to create views into the roof space above.

‘One of the biggest challenges has been working around the challenges of agricultural construction where one of the principal floor beams rests on the external window’

The house was once the Rectory to the Church of St Bartholomew to the north. The house dates back to the early to mid 17th century. Whilst the stable range is 18th century and was a carriage house and loose box.

Our services included feasibility studies, condition surveys, preparing heritage statements, listed building consent and planning application and developing building regulations and working drawings.

A perfectly ‘sty-lised’ studio from ruinous eyesore!

We are delighted to have received planning permission and listed building consent for a contemporary artist studio in the curtilage of a private country house in Wiltshire amidst the sensitive setting of the Broad Town White Horse. The new art studio is to be constructed on the footprint of a ruinous pigsty, and next to a boiler house.

Good survey information, along with a heritage statement, condition survey and visual assessment informed a sensitive and contemporary design which reflected the appearance of the old pigsty, whilst better revealing the heritage of the site, and bring into use the old boiler house falling into disrepair.

We were approached by the client as the existing application was about to be refused by Wilshire Council from a combination of the Council not being able to physically visit the site, and also the inadequacy of the existing information.

Following a review of the site and the scope of work, the scheme was modified to remove any harmful elements of the proposals. A new measured survey was commissioned, a heritage statement and condition survey was prepared to justify the alterations to the smoke house. The heritage statement informed the design and a new scheme prepared to reflect the appearance of the old pigsties.

A revised application was submitted within 3 weeks of being appointed.

Conservation of the Covered Market continues

46-48 Covered Market, Oxford

46-48 Covered Market, Oxford

Following a period of downtime, Croft Building and Conservation re-commenced work on 46-48 Covered Market on the 1st June 2020. Following the first week of re-establishing site, setting up hand sanitising stations and agreeing method statements, the site was fully operational the following week. The starting of site work preceded the general opening of the Covered Market and as a result we reviewed the programme ahead and agreed to advance certain aspects of the project to ensure that social distancing could be maintained when the market re-opened on the 15th June.

The modern brick and glazed screen had been intended to be removed as part of a final finale once the works were complete – however to comply with the City Council’s method statements and social distancing rules, we agreed that the screen should be removed so that stall owners and visitors could see the work more freely without stopping to see it. This would have the added advantage of reducing restrictions on the width of the avenues improving flow around the market.

The early revealing of the restoration project has prompted several complimentary comments from other stall holders. The restored units are attracting much interest from prospective new tenants, which is a credit to Oxford City Council and Oxford Preservation Trust’s commitment to funding the conservation of the Covered Market