Conservation

We have nearly 40 years’ experience in heritage and conservation architecture, with projects ranging from 12th-century castles to 20th-century modernist houses. Our work spans Grade I, II* and II listed buildings, as well as Scheduled Monuments, and includes complex conservation repairs, sensitive alterations, and carefully considered extensions. We are members of SPAB, Surrey Historic Buildings Trust, and the Domestic Buildings Research Group (Surrey), and have received both regional and national awards for our conservation work, including Overall Winner of the Surrey Heritage Awards for our regeneration of Horton Chapel.

Our clients include private homeowners, estates, local authorities, charities and commercial owners of heritage buildings. We collaborate closely with skilled consultants, artisans and conservation contractors, and regularly produce Heritage Assessments and Impact Statements to support successful listed building applications across multiple local authorities. Each project begins with thorough research into the building’s history, evolution and context, ensuring any repair or intervention is both appropriate and long-lasting, while respecting the building’s historic character and significance.

 

Projects have included

Churches, Chapels, Castles, Residential houses, Botanical gardens

Our Projects

Farnham Castle

Farnham Castle is a collection of Grade 1 and Grade 11 listed buildings and a scheduled monument, enclosed within a 12th century curtain wall. The buildings date from around 1138, when a Motte and Bailey castle was built on the hill above Farnham. This was adapted to a Shell Keep, which was then sleighted in the mid 12th century. There was further extensive building work in the 12th, 14th, 17th and 18th centuries. The Castle was one of the palaces of the Bishops of Winchester until the early 1930s, and is regarded as being one of the oldest and most important continuously occupied buildings in southern England.

We spent 12 years restoring all areas of the Castle, including the Great Hall, the Bishops Chapel and Bishops Camera, the kitchens and refectory, the Keep, Fox’s Tower, and the Norman curtain wall surround the Castle. The works were undertaken with significant grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and we worked very closely with English Heritage and the HLF to deliver what has probably been the most comprehensive restoration at Farnham Castle since the 17th century.

The restoration has won a number of conservation and design awards.

The Horton Epsom

Horton Chapel is a Grade 11 listed chapel, built in 1902 as part of the Epsom Hospital Cluster, a group of 5 psychiatric hospitals on a 1000-acre estate housing 10,000 patients. At the time, the population of the hospital cluster was larger than the population of Epsom, and the cluster was certainly the largest collection of psychiatric hospitals in Europe if not world-wide.

By the time we were appointed the Chapel was derelict, had been badly vandalised, and was considered to be a building at risk.

We worked very closely with Epsom and Ewell Borough Council and the  Horton Chapel Arts and Heritage Society, to develop the Brief, gain Planning and Listed Building Consent and then undertake a major restoration to convert the Chapel into a vibrant and successful community arts centre. Our clients said “The sympathetic architectural conversion has enhanced the stunning historic features of the building whilst delivering excellent contemporary facilities”.

The Horton was awarded Overall Winner at the Surrey Historic Buildings Trust Awards.

Mole Cottage

Mole Cottage is a Grade 11 listed timber-framed cottage dating from 1645, with much of the original framing still visible internally. The original 3 bay cottage is end-on to the street, with a later Victorian half-bay added to the street end of the cottage. The timber frame was gentrified with an outer brick skin, which in turn was rendered, probably in the 19th century.

The house was extended and significantly altered in the 1980’s, with some typically inappropriate details and materials including a sun room 1st floor rear conservatory, concrete roof tiles and an unsympathetic extension to the front elevation.

The internal circulation had evolved in a very haphazard way as the building has been extended. When we were appointed, the entrance was on west side of the house, with convoluted routes to get from the front door to the kitchen via several other rooms.

Having analysed the history and evolution of the house we developed a strategy to remove the unsympathetic front and rear extensions and replace these with a gabled wing that ran from front to back. This created a simple 3 bay design to the front and rear elevations. We repositioned the front door to the centre of the front elevation, and internally we designed a double-height galleried hallway at the centre of the house.

The works have restored and sympathetically extended a significant Listed Building in the centre of Cobham, enhanced the historic features of the house, and removed inappropriate alterations from the 1980s.

Bisham Abbey

Bisham Abbey is Grade 1 listed and a scheduled monument dating from the 12th century, with later additions. The Abbey was three successive religious houses before being sold off to private owners after the 16th century Reformation. We were initially appointed following a request of the local conservation officer, to research and interpret unusual markings inscribed into the 12th century stone walls of the Great Hall. We were able to confirm that these were apotropaic symbols.

We have undertaken numerous restoration projects at Bisham Abbey. Our initial restoration project was to conserve the apotropaic symbols and restore the damaged and spalling clunch arcade on which the symbols were inscribed.

A major project involved analysing and rectifying severe damage to 15th century 1st floor timber floors. The floors had deflected by about 150mm, due to central beams becoming badly eroded and collapsing, resulting in major and alarming deflection particularly under live loads. The works were complicated by the fact that the ceilings beneath included important decorative plaster that could not be damaged. The repair included 2no 6.5m long 10mm steel plates, which had to be mounted either side of the central floor beams and bolted through the beams, whilst avoiding adding any significant extra live load whilst undertaking the repair.

The Orangery Englefield Green

The Orangery is all that remains of a large historic country estate in Englefield Green. This Grade 11 listed building dates from the late 18th century and was in danger of collapse when we were appointed. Significant elements of the external Roman Cement render and mouldings had delaminated from the brick core, the 20th century glazed roof had collapsed, trees were growing inside the building, the front elevation was leaning outwards, and the central pediment was ‘live’.

The repair works involved stripping all the render and lime plaster and allowing the building to dry out, then inserting a steel ring beam at high level to tie the front elevation and pediment  back to the main body of the Orangery. The building was then re-rendered in lime render with a mineral paint finish, and the cornice was reinstated using a combination of running the mouldings using a moulding die, and taking casts of the triglyphs.

Roman Cement was used for a relatively short period in the late 18th and early to mid 19th centuries for rendering brickwork. It is a lime-based material that is very hard, and was later used in the 19th century for tunnel linings due to its quick setting and exceptional waterproofing properties.

Our projects have won numerous awards, including

Waverley Borough Council Design and Conservation awards /
Surrey Historic Buildings Trust best overall conservation project award /
Museum and Heritage award /
Elmbridge Borough Council conservation award