July/August News

             

Wedding Bells was a theme at KPT over the summer.
Kay and Peter’s son, Delme, was married to Charlotte, at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Radwinter, with their massive traditional tent standing just outside our office barn.
Muriel and her husband, John, also celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary.

Here is a taster of what our practice has been busy designing and building this summer.

• The building works to Finchingfield Guildhall have completed and they have had their public opening on the Bank Holiday weekend. 400 people bustled through the medieval doorways. Linda the Librarian has opened the wonderful new village library and the local children are enjoying story time with, amongst others, the impressive original Dodie Smith books, such as The 101 Dalmatians, which were donated, as Dodie used to live in Finchingfield. The interactive museum has been a roaring success and everyone from toddlers to pensioners has been playing with the large interactive village map. Teas and Cake were served in the splendid Guildroom and there is a new Guildhall Shop selling lovely local crafts and artwork. Please do take a visit to this building dating back to 1470, as it is a real delight full of interesting history about Finchingfield, Essex and life in the medieval period.
• Excitedly Kay Pilsbury Thomas Architects, Fairhurst Ward Abbotts and The Finchingfield Guildhall Trust have been shortlisted for English Heritage’s Angle Awards hosted by Andrew Lloyd Webber. We have been selected for:  “The best craftsmanship employed on a heritage rescue” We had a day’s filming for the awards, where they interviewed the two young Apprentices that were taken on to learn lime plastering and traditional carpentry and how we approached the repairs and used local craftspeople and traditional/local materials and Suppliers for the works. We also held lots of open days, whilst on-site to explain to visitors how we were repairing the building and the skills used.  Images of the completed building should soon appear on our public buildings page of the website. 
• The hard landscaping external works at a C.16th Grade I listed Country House in Suffolk, which were conceived by renowned Landscape Designer, George Carter, have completed by Rose Builders.  A new morning terrace has been created adjacent to the contemporary Morning Room extension onto the service wing which we designed. The new East facing room has 9m long bi-folding doors that completely open the space up onto the terrace creating a fluid transition between outside and inside spaces. 
• Adam and his team have been busy with KPTA at the C.16th Hall House and rear wing in Essex. R.J.Hogg have been putting the finishing touches to the new staircases and oak doors in the rear wing. This building will, for the first time in centuries, be used by the owners once again, as its conversion has reinstated this fascinating timber-framed building back into use from being a cattle shed. 
• We're back at Little Chesterford Church this month with Lodge & Sons Builders undertaking repairs to the Vestry of this lovely 13th Century Early English Church, following our Quinquennial report. 
• We’re on-site with historic Building Contractors Lodge & Sons at Radwinter Village Hall re-ordering and replacing the rainwater good and underground drainage. This decorative building was designed by the famous Arts and Crafts Architect William Nesfield in 1887. It has very ornate pargetting, which in this case is relief patterning on the lime plasterwork of floral designs. 
• We’ve received the Estimate of Cost for a partially rebuilt farmhouse in Essex, which had been re-modelled in the 80s, obscuring most of the historic form. Therefore the new design has investigated the old buildings and replaced the 80s extension with more appropriately proportioned spaces, whilst re-using the old dairy and wash-house. The next stage is pulling together all the consultant designers and producing the construction/building control drawings.
• The competitive tender is out on a Grade II Listed C.17th/C.18th former rectory in Hertfordshire.  The building contractors are all busy pricing to hopefully win the chance to renovate this beautiful moated house. 
• We are busy organising the various planning reports, such as ecology, highways, noise and structural, needed to supplement the conversion of a C.15th and C.17th barn. At the same time we are producing the Listed Building and Planning forms and Heritage Statement, so this can all be submitted. The design is completely unique, juxtaposing a traditional historic conservation/materials approach to the older barn conversion, with a very modern glass and honest stripped-back agricultural design for the later barn.
• The tenders have been returned for a Grade II* C.16th large farmhouse in Hertfordshire, which is having a new single-storey extension, which has decorative detailing of exposed solid oak frame with red brick infill panels and leaded light windows. The winning Contractor, R. J. Pinnock & Sons Ltd, is due to start on-site in August.
• Planning Permission and Listed Building Consent has been approved for the extension to a Grade II listed, Arts and Crafts house in Essex. The design is for a new Day/Breakfast Room on the side of the Kitchen. We are also exploring designs for a new swimming pool building. 
•  A pretty C.19th house in Essex, is to have an new interior design scheme for each room. Interior Design Concept Design Boards and sketches have been completed. The concept designs for a new oak garden room overlooking the wood and new Kitchen extension are now complete.   
• The Pleshey House of Retreat construction drawings and schedule are being completed following a meeting with the team ready to go out to tender soon. 
• Concept Proposal designs are complete for the restoration and extension of a Grade II listed farmhouse in Cambridgeshire.  The C.17th house will be completely renovated, thermally upgraded, and we have designed a new Orangery with elegant sash windows, tall French doors and vaulted ceilings, we are due to meet the conservation officer to discuss the designs next month.
• We are producing the Listed Building and Planning  application for the extension of two timber frame Grade II Listed C.17th agricultural workers’ cottages in Essex, following an informal nod from the conservation officer to submit.  
• The Quinquennial inspection has been completed for St Michael and All Angels, Galleywood, and the famous batman and women “Jiggins” have done a bat survey and found some little fellas in the porch.
• An Estimate of Cost for the Big Project at St. Michael and All Angels, Galleywood is currently underway following our feasibility study.
• We are redesigning the attic spaces and designing a new orangery extension at a Georgian house in Huntingdon. This house has some lovely dentil decorative brick cornicing, so we have incorporated this into the new room. We have also re-designed an old conservatory with a very modern and transparent glass fin structure, to help redefine and expose, rather than infill,  the outline of the little service buildings at the rear.    
• Mike Cameron the photographer has been busy photographing both Finchingfield Guildhall and the little oak ancillary round building we designed and both of these will be uploaded onto our website soon!