August News

The Olympic and Paralympics Games have made very exciting viewing.  Some of us at KPT were lucky enough to go to the Athletics and see stars like Usain Bolt and many of Team GB win plenty of gold medals!

Summer is always a busy time at KPTA and here’s what we’ve been up to in August:

·         We have received Planning Permission, Listed Building approval and Scheduled Monument consent for works to be sympathetically carried out to probably the most significant group of farm buildings in the East of England at Colville Hall, White Roding.  The buildings within its curtilage are most impressive; a Grade I Courthouse, a Grade I barn of eight bays dating to the C12th, a Grade II* granary, a Grade II* Byre, a Grade II* barn of five bays, a Grade II cart lodge and, as well as all these, a Grade I Tudor gateway – and all sitting on a 12th century Scheduled Ancient Monument. 

      Our clients have brilliantly battled through the complex planning process to ensure that these significant buildings are saved and safeguarded for the future, by receiving approval to use them as a beautiful wedding venue and accommodation. The use they have chosen is ideal for the lovely barns because they can be used without any new floors or partitions and will, therefore, be enjoyed for their beautiful and majestic spaces – hopefully for many generations to come.

      The site was an extremely sensitive one, being in the Green Belt and accessed via a narrow country lane. It is for this that they received so many objectors. But the clients are a remarkable couple and have agreed to build a new access road to the site, plant a new wood and include some sophisticated noise control systems in order to reduce any impact from the proposal.We all look forward to seeing these beautiful buildings being brought back to life again and saved by this ambitious project.

·         The complete interior design and 1 ½ storey extension of the late C16th Grade II former Watermill in Suffolk are now complete. Photos are soon to appear on our website under domestic projects. 

·         At the Grade II * C16th brick and timber framed Hall house in Hertfordshire, sketch designs continue for a single storey extension and alterations to a barn. 

·         The design to a Farmhouse in the Lea Valley continues.  We are looking to reinstate the original lobby entrance elements of the house and former features, such as the large decorative chimney tops, and to replace the existing modern wing with a complimentary one. The old washhouse is also being linked to the house, to create a Kitchen and Breakfast Room.

·         The restoration of Finchingfield Guildhall continues. The sheepswool insulation has been inserted and oak laths applied, with the lime hair plaster scratch and pricking coats going on now. The electric first fix is going well and the reinstated C15th mullioned windows are nearly all in, so now the building is beginning to look as it did in the C15th once again. 

·         Breakfast Room drawings and joinery details continue for works to the Grade I Country House in Suffolk, and the works on-site to open up the Kitchen are going nicely.

·         At the Grade II Listed former public house in Essex the joinery is well under way with the new staircase in and the shutters being fitted. The bathroom fitting is almost finished. The kitchen for the annexe has been chosen and the conversion works to the barn annexe have begun.

·         While on-site at the Hall house in Essex we uncovered a water well, which pre-dates the kitchen, and is therefore thought to date from C15^th.  We are currently investigating the walls of the well known as “steining” to see if they can be exposed. The electrical first fix is well under way.  New sheepswool insulation has been inserted; and laths are being fixed, ready for the new lime hair plaster render.  Scheduled Monument Consent and Listed Building Consent has been given for further works to be undertaken on the moat.

·         The Retreat House, Pleshey is a popular place for clergy and lay-people to go for a week or a few days of contemplation and prayer. The facilities need improving and KPTA have been working with the Diocese to upgrade them.
Once a convent, the early farmhouse was extended in the Edwardian era by the Mother Superior’s brother, an architect of the time. Planning and Listed building approval was gained last year for 26 bedrooms with en-suite shower rooms, including improved wheelchair access and a new loggia meeting room.
The Diocese have been raising funds for this work to be carried out, and we have now been commissioned to prepare the detailed working drawings for the first phase of the work to the Gatehouse.

·         Bush End Church is now at Practical Completion and looking beautiful once more. Their new Kitchenette, WC and balcony are already proving most useful to this church, which has an enviable position opposite the National Trusts Hatfield Heath.

·         At Radwinter Church, scenes of Radwinter, for the new Diamond Jubilee Delft Tiles, have been chosen and are being made by Watson Studio.  Local specialists Auravisions have expertly converted one of the stained-glass windows to an opening casement; and the panelling for the WC and Kitchenette are being constructed by Lodge and Sons Builders, and are based on original panelling in the Vestry by C19th Architect Temple Moore, but with a new Saffron crocus carving.

·         Roof Repairs are due to start soon to Little Baddow Church, we are just waiting for the appropriate timing to ensure no bats are present.

·         We are currently drawing the existing structure plans and elevations of a large timber framed granary and single aisle barn in Essex, which is to be converted to a workshop studio.

·         A little flint and brick outbuilding, which was thought to have been the old washhouse to a beautiful C17th house, has been measured and drawn up, as it is to be used as a home study/office.      

·         We are soon due to meet the DAC advisers at Galleywood Church to discuss the best location for their organ within the building.

·         We are progressing the design for a new Breakfast Room to a beautiful listed arts and crafts house design by the well-known Architect George Sherrin in Essex. The Conservation Officer is happy with the proposal, and we are incorporating lovely features from the house such as an arched timber overhang.   

·         The Planning application is in for a new timber framed stable-block in a local village, and the bat report is complete. 

·         Finally our Director Sibyl is undertaking works to her own Grade II Listed Farmhouse. The frame has been repaired with new oak plates and new tennon repairs to the studs. A new brick plinth has been built using Colliers handmade bricks, and a breather perimeter floor is now down replacing the impervious concrete floor which was causing damp. She found an original doorway on the front of the house, which is to be reinstated to the front garden. The exposed timber-frame is also being insulated to reduce carbon emissions.