Renovating a 17th Century Stone Cottage

Having spent all his working life on building sites, builder and developer Andrew Herring is no stranger to huge quantities of mess and dirt. However, the two months he and his wife Niki spent renovating the 17th century stone cottage they had bought in a village near Oxford came as quite a shock.

"We had lived in the previous house for 16 years so had not been used to such upheaval in our own home," explains Niki. "It was April and the draughts were pretty horrendous as we had a large area of polythene in place of an outside wall. Our three children were cosy enough in their rooms upstairs but Andrew and I, who did virtually all the work in the early stages, regularly found ourselves sleeping in any old corner."

After two months of solid work upgrading the old part of the house, Andrew and Niki turned their sights to building a new extension. This has added two more wings to the cottage, which had already been extended into a T-shape in the 1960s, to make it into a courtyard house, with the new kitchen and breakfast room, dining room and drawing room all a series of free-flowing open plan spaces.

"It was the obvious way to go," says Andrew. "The courtyard idea is a concept I was introduced to two years ago by architect Alan Drury, who does a lot of work for our company, Herring Homes, and has taught me a tremendous amount. It made a lot of sense with our project as it brings in a great deal of light, adds interest and allows us the sort of open plan interior we wanted, with plain, rough textured walls that take their milky-cream colour from the white cement and lime in the render."

Andrew and Niki had a big advantage from the outset because the house, although it is in the village conservation area, is unlisted, which meant they had little difficulty in gaining planning permission to extend the building again. When the local conservation officer visited he also liked the look of what they had planned.

"I have to say there are some very perceptive officials at the Vale of White Horse Council," says Andrew. "They do a lot to encourage imaginative concepts from small operators like myself who put a lot of passion into their new houses and extensions, compared with the profit-machine approach of the larger builders."

The planners were unyielding over certain elements, however, insisting that the Herrings keep the ridge heights of the two new ranges lower than that of the original building, which fronts the road. Despite this, Andrew and Niki have managed to retain a 50° pitch on both the new clay tile sections, while following the suggestion of Alan Drury to create dual pitches and draw the roofs down at a shallower angle on the inside of the courtyard to rest on posts and create a cloister on three sides.

This generous roof makes for a very intimate feel in the courtyard, which forms a small paved outdoor relaxation area, with plants in pots and a bog garden at the edges where it adjoins the house. Andrew is particularly proud of the arrangement with the frameless glazing that surrounds it. "While the cloister posts are the geometry of the courtyard - the setting-out points - the glass wall varies in its distance from the posts, which adds a lot of interest," he explains. Internally, the ceiling extends over the glass in strategic positions to assist the illusion of never really knowing whether you are inside or out.

Planning the upstairs proved quite a problem. As the cottage had been extended to the rear once already, the key thing to avoid was wasted space in the form of corridors or bedrooms that had to be passed through to gain access to others. Alan's way round this was to add a solid masonry staircase in the new wing. It curves up attractively between the kitchen and the dining area at the point where the floor level and surfaces change, and leads to Andrew and Niki's dressing room, with its central roll-top bath. Cleverly, this room also serves as a spare double (guest) room, with a sofa bed. Andrew and Nikki can shut themselves off from this and retreat to their bedroom, which has its own small shower and WC at the far end. This is tucked cunningly into the space above where the dining room meets the drawing room, before the building switches to single storey construction.

"We are delighted with the whole scheme, which was a first of this kind for me," says Andrew. "I like to move on with house designs and I think this is a stepping stone to where we may end up. In this instance, the existing arrangement was a gift for an extension as it was not necessary to do a lot of major alterations to the original. This made the project both fortunate and economical. I reckon that, taking the more expensive upgrading work on the exisiting building into account, the extension itself cost about £1,000/m²."

"We feel the great success has been the frameless glazing and the cloister, and if we choose to move on, this is the area we shall concentrate on - more courtyards, more split levels and more water."

The glass box also creates a wonderful effect at night. From the outside it looks like a giant aquarium. "We have no curtains or blinds downstairs and do not feel we need them, because the house is set back on the edge of the village and protected by trees at the side. The single storey building at the front, which serves as my office, and the 1.8 metre high wall that forms the fourth boundary of the courtyard also offer privacy. We could almost be in the middle of a field. It really is ideal."

View more short films of award winning homes 

Further reading:

• Renovating Old Stone Buildings
• Five Steps to Renovation Design Success
• A Guide to Extending Cottages