THE CONSERVATION STUDIO NEWSLETTER
June 2009

IHBC President

In September 2008, Eddie Booth was appointed President of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation. He was immediately thrown in at the ‘deep end’ to host a reception at Hillsborough Castle for guests who included the Northern Ireland Ministers for Environment and Culture. This has been followed by conferences in Wales with the Welsh Assembly Minister for Heritage.

Cyfarthfa Conservation Management Plan, Merthyr Tydfil

We are currently preparing a Management Plan for Cyfarthfa Castle, park and associated iron furnaces which will feed into a ‘Parks for People’ bid to the HLF to be submitted in August. This follows on from our work on a Heritage Strategy for the Council, which was produced in 2008, and two conservation area designation reports for Merthyr Tydfil Town Centre and Treharris, which were produced earlier this year.

Tendring Supplementary Planning Document

The latest in a series of Conservation Area Management Plans addresses the twin settlements of Manningtree and Mistley on the south bank of the Stour estuary in Essex. At the same time, we are preparing an SPD on the regeneration of Mistley.

In the 18th century, Mistley was going to become a spa resort. When that project failed, it developed as an industrial port. The result is a townscape of Georgian houses and twin church towers by Robert Adam alongside the warehouses and maltings of the industrial quayside.

The challenge for the SPD is to balance heritage, tourism and the conversion of buildings with the needs of a working quay.

North Lincolnshire Article 4 Directions

Nine years ago we provided North Lincolnshire Council with 19 Conservation Area Appraisals and Management Plans, and we are now working on a detailed assessment of 17 of these areas to ascertain which areas should have Article 4 Directions, and what form the Directions should take.

Daventry

We have just completed an appraisal that has led to the designation of Daventry Reservoir as a conservation area. This is unusual in that the special interest is almost entirely historic, rather than architectural.

The earth-dammed reservoir was constructed in 1804 to serve the Grand Junction (later Grand Union) Canal. The canal was already designated as a conservation area, but it seemed that the significance of the reservoir had been missed.

Daventry Reservoir is now an important country park and nature reserve, but its setting is vulnerable to the extensive housing proposals planned for West Northamptonshire. Its new status will enable its historical character to be taken into account.

HELM – Conservation Area Management Training

Over the last 18 months we have delivered six training sessions for English Heritage under their HELM initiative in Durham, Manchester, Reading, Birmingham, Sheffield and Derby. Two further sessions, in Gloucester and Norwich, have been commissioned for November this year.

Repeat orders

It’s flattering when clients return to us and we have several contracts at the moment where one job has led to another. These include:

Chichester District Council – we have already completed four separate contracts for the Council and are currently working on a Character Appraisal and Management Plan for South Harting, a small village on the north side of the South Downs, which will soon be within the new South Downs National Park.

East Northamptonshire Council – having completed four Character Appraisals and Management Plans for the Council in 2008, we are now working on a further eight conservation areas, including the production of Designation Reports.

North Hertfordshire Council – last year we completed Character Appraisals for four conservation areas and we have just provided the Council with the public consultation draft for the Hitchin Conservation Area. We are also, in close collaboration with the Hitchin Historical Society, preparing a revised Local List for Hitchin Parish. A stakeholder’s seminar held in March has helped to inform both documents.

Epsom and Ewell Borough Council – we have a ‘framework’ agreement with the Council and have already provided them with Character Appraisals and Management Plans for the Stamford Green, Ewell Village and Epsom Town Centre Conservation Areas. Other residential conservation areas have also been assessed, and we have just been appointed to appraise two more. In 2008 we looked at the Epsom Hospitals ‘Cluster’ – a group of five former mental hospitals, the majority of which have been redeveloped for housing although some of the original buildings have been retained and converted, and are being protected by conservation area status.

Planning appeals

We have continued to provide evidence to assist local authorities in contesting appeals. These have ranged from the illumination of tennis courts in part of the Cheltenham Conservation Area to the proposal for a new Marylebone Magistrates’ Court.

We were particularly pleased to mount the successful defence of our own Conservation Area Character Appraisal for the historic town of Odiham in north Hampshire. Here we worked with Hart District Council at a public inquiry to resist a housing proposal that would have detracted considerably from the character of the conservation area.