Billesley

Our clients own a late 20^th century house located within a Scheduled Monument: Medieval settlement at Billesley Trussell (National Heritage List for England NHLE:1016440), with several Listed buildings to the west. The client wished to update the house, including the like-for-like replacement of paths, walls and steps, the conversion of an integral garage to living area, the addition of cladding and render to the building, the replacement of a single-storey extension with a two-storey extension and the addition of a garden room to the rear of the property.

In accordance with Historic England’s request, we produced a Heritage and Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment (HDBA) to assess the proposed development’s potential impact on buried archaeological remains, and on the significance and setting of the surrounding designated heritage assets, in accordance with NPPF and Stratford-on-Avon District Core Strategy 2011-2031 policy CS.8: Historic Environment.

We were able to show that the replacement of paths, walls and steps would have no impact on the Scheduled Monument or underlying buried archaeology, and that based upon previous work we had done on the site, the garage conversion and new extension would be in areas already disturbed and thus unlikely to impact underlying archaeology.

We advised the client that certain easy-win alterations to the exterior of the house would benefit the Scheduled Monument’s setting by reducing the modern house’s visual impact on the experience of the historic earthworks, and thus help to off-set any negative impact of the proposed development.

We also advised on the design of the proposed garden room’s foundation, which had been a contentious point for Historic England, and provided the client with several options.



After taking our advice, the client gained Scheduled Monument Consent to make the proposed changes.