Old Barnstaple House is listed Grade II* as a building of significant historic interest, subject to statutory protection. This category puts it in the top 8% of listed buildings, considerably increasing the level of protection and degree of scrutiny.
As with all listed buildings, Listed Building Consent will be required for any alterations affecting its special historic interest or significance.
Because of its status any application will be assessed by additional statutory consultees, such as Historic England, as well as the Local Planning Authority and Conservation Officer. This all means that a lot of care and attention needs to be paid to protecting its significance when planning the refurbishment project.
Old Barnstable House Blog 2: Exploring the Property
The first stage was to understand the structure, history and development of the building as a basis for deciding what is appropriate. I covered some of this in my last blog – as I said there, it will be an ongoing process as we learn more from removing the modern layers to reveal the structure.
As well as examining the building itself we’ve looked for any useful documentary evidence about its history. So far this has had limited success.
The list description is quite detailed and extensive so that gives us some good background. Unfortunately this needs to be treated with caution because it only gives a very partial picture and isn’t completely reliable. We haven’t been able to find any other written record of the house yet.
Searching for old photos has turned up only a single image but it has proved particularly useful. It shows the front elevation of the house before a number of modern alterations. It also includes a K reg Capri and Jeremy Thorpe campaigning in a general election.
That gives us a very accurate date range between 1971 and 1979. The photo shows the old windows – particularly handy because we now have poor quality metal windows, which can be difficult to date and sometimes cause problems in justifying replacement. We can prove ours are modern and also know what was there before to inform the design of sympathetic replacements.
Armed with this information and an initial view of the work we wanted to carry out, it was time for a meeting with the Conservation Officer to discuss our approach. This can be a daunting experience and is crucial to the success of this kind of project.
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