Enlargement of a previously converted barn

A tithe barn in two acres which once belonged to the nearby rectory had been made into a house about 20 years previously. On such a site planning approval to enlarge the house was not difficult to achieve, but the method of enlargement presented an interesting exercise for the Architect. The site slopes down to the West and the best views are to the South and West. It therefore seemed sensible to place the new wing in front of the old barn as a ‘double stack’, with a well proportioned entrance and staircase hall between.

Top light floods down the staircase and also provides light into the garden room beyond, largely contained within an old lean-to garage. The main rooms were given extra height, so that upstairs the bedrooms are set into the roof, providing interesting tent-shaped rooms. Every bedroom has a bathroom and a fifth bedroom was formed within the attic of the old barn itself

The projecting entrance porch is carried up to provide an office above, very much in the same manner that church porches were sometimes given a room over them. The wide openings to the two reception rooms echo those of the farm cartshed, reinforcing the image of the Agricultural Mannerist style and enabling the new part of the building also made in flint and brick to settle in comfortably with the old barn.