Once Derek and Sue had settled on the idea of knocking their bungalow down and building a new oak framed home the planning chapter of their project began. I asked Derek how his relationship with Oakwrights started.
Derek says we met Tim at the NEC and were impressed by the range of house styles which Oakwrights had worked with. We had lived in a 500 year old timber frame house in the village of Weobley, and were familiar with the problems of panels in old oak framed houses, i.e. leakages and maintenance. Also there was already at that time several traditional style houses built or planned in the area by other oak framing companies. We felt that we wanted something different (the villagers also wanted something different) and I was aware of the advantages of a Post and Beam style. The Oakwrights book on oak frame houses confirmed our ideas on what type of home we wanted.
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Having built a house in Norway in the early 80's, I was interested in replicating many of the Scandinavian features. For example I was very interested in having a basement, for dry storage space, for a utility room, potential workshop, playroom and plant room for services. I also wanted a house where if necessary one could live quite comfortably on the ground floor, without having to negotiate stairs. Thus a study with en suite is included on the ground floor, and this can easily be adapted as a main bedroom.
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Decking, a popular feature in Scandinavia, is also planned for many of the areas surrounding the ground floor.
We had an early meeting with planners, even before we purchased the site, and again, soon after we had started to sketch out what we wanted, and they gave us some general feedback on what they saw as limits for the development. For some time I was interested in following up an alternative solution on the site, which was to completely modify the existing bungalow to suit our requirements, while Sue's opinion right from the start was that "It's a bulldozer job". Of course, a bulldozer job it became.
We met John Williams one of Oakwrights architectural designers through Roland Horwood who is a frame designer for Oakwrights, although I had met John briefly before, through knowing his father as an active person in the village. We worked together with John, giving him input on our ideas, our life style, etc.,but did give him the freedom to go away and think 'out of the box' so that he did come up with a number of proposals or points for discussion which would otherwise not have been aired. Our initial proposals were unofficially rejected by the planners, but after some discussion we did come to an agreed plan. The main stipulations were that the ridge of the property should be stepped and not continuous (as the roof was on the skyline as seen from the centre of the village), and that the most appropriate roofing material was natural slate. (The site is in a conservation area).
One main point of our design brief was that we were looking to construct an eco friendly house with high levels of insulation and a healthy living environment.
John Williams writes
I received the instruction from Derek and Sue in early December 2007.
They had a first draft sketch in January 2008, which pinned down some key decisions about the positions of rooms and the views from them (in particular the views from the kitchen needed to look both south, but also north up the main part of the garden). A revision was completed in early February and minor changes made to this during this month. These drawings were then submitted to the council for comment, and given the location of the site in historic village of Weobley, the conservation officer was involved. The conservation officer had the main influence on the comments we received – that the roofline be stepped along the north/south axis (as this was seen from a key viewpoint in the village, on the footpath to the castle), and that the roof finish be slate.
The planner did not add anything to this. Because of the site location within the village settlement, the planner did not have particular concern about the increase in size from a bungalow to a ‘storey and a half’ design with a basement.
The stepping of the roof line required a layout change, as it was no longer possible to have a first floor room where the roof lowered. After completing a further set of drawings showing the master bedroom repositioned, we had a positive response from the council.
We submitted the plans in May, receiving the approval on the 10th July.
The change in the design to create the break in the roofline has certainly not spoilt the design, and has probably created improvements. The master bedroom in its new location has a magnificent view to the west (Hay Bluff), while still retaining views north up the garden. It also allowed Derek and Sue to have a vaulted sitting room looking up the garden (where the planners requested the roof ridge line lowered), where the full ‘majesty’ of the oak framed roof structure can be appreciated!