Glen Bacon and Jane Healy have built an annexe suitable for elderly parents in the garden of their listed house, choosing a varied palette of cladding materials which includes limestone and flint.
TEXT DEBBIE JEFFERY IMAGES SOPHIE BATES ARCHITECTS / GLEN BACON
Building in the grounds of a 16th century Grade II listed house was always going to bring its challenges, but Glen Bacon and his wife, Jane Healy, were determined to overcome these obstacles to create an annexe in their garden.
“As Jane’s parents grew older it seemed an ideal solution to build a bungalow for them close by,” explains Glen, who planned to tackle as much of the work as possible after a lifetime spent renovating houses in both the UK and Australia.
Glen and Jane have lived in their listed home for the past 23 years and had already converted a barn on the site in 2013, creating a guest room above a garage and store. At first, the couple considered building an annexe on another part of the garden, but a planning consultant and their chosen architect, Sophie Bates, believed that replacing a dilapidated greenhouse beside the converted barn would prove more acceptable to the planners.
Nestling the annexe in one corner of the generous garden, tucked behind the two storey black weatherboard-clad barn, would enable garden views from the new property while minimising its presence onsite and providing privacy. The location also allows living spaces to open onto the shared garden and maintains views from the living room of the main house.
“Working with the family proved a true collaboration,” explains architect Sophie Bates, whose practice is based in Surrey. “They asked for a bungalow, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, but gave me a free hand on the overall design. Glen’s building experience meant that he already understood the process, and we all got along extremely well.”
Pre-application advice from the local council was sought by Sophie, and feedback was positive regarding the proposed location and scale of the new annexe. The response stated: ‘there is no objection to the general massing of the proposal or its siting within the grounds.’
The planners also stressed the importance of attention to detail when it came to the choice of materials. ‘If a more contemporary approach is favoured by the applicants, then a slate roof is most likely to be acceptable. It is considered that local stone/brick or wood walling would be acceptable for the annexe.’
Sophie prepared a small selection of proposals, and the chosen single storey design is made up of three distinct forms which echo the appearance of the neighbouring barn. One pitch-roofed wing contains bedrooms and bathrooms, the other an open plan vaulted living/dining/kitchen, with the two elements connected by a flat-roofed link accommodating the entrance hall, utility and plant room, which require less natural light.
The main house stands on an acre of land, backing onto a railway line in an urban and largely residential area. Tile-hung to the first floor, with brick and flint to the ground floor, the building is timber-framed with plain roof tiles. Extended in around 1600, and again in the 18th century, further additions were built in 1920 and 2003.
“Our house dates back to around 1550, and has been added to over the centuries, but we wanted the annexe to be simple and contemporary,” says Glen. “Fortunately, the planners were very happy with Sophie’s design, and she put a great deal of work into preparing a heritage statement to illustrate how the annexe would have minimal impact on its setting.”
Architect Sophie’s thorough approach also involved inviting a local planning consultant to draw up a statement to accompany the planning application for the challenging site. “It sounds obvious, but providing detailed, clear, contextual drawings, along with a design statement and photos of the site, help to give the best possible chance of a positive outcome,” she explains.
A single storey design was always favoured for the annexe, partly for ease of construction and also to make the building fully accessible for the elderly occupants, eliminating the need for a lift or stairlift. The impact on its sensitive setting in the grounds of a listed building is also reduced, with only the top of the single storey roof pitch visible from the road.
“Its position responds to existing outbuildings along the western site boundary,” continues Sophie. “Bedrooms face east behind a corridor to maintain privacy, and living areas look south towards the main house, maximising natural light.”
The annexe is accessed from the main driveway to the property, with ample parking already onsite, and mains water and gas extended from the existing house. A new three-phase electrical supply was also introduced, as the building is heated by an air source heat pump connected to water underfloor heating, and upgrading to three-phase power ensures that the home can efficiently run multiple appliances at the same time.
Once planning permission had been granted, Sophie was able to complete the drawings for building control, including all glazing details. Glen and a retired carpenter friend undertook most of the build between them, bringing in specialists for electrical work, plastering, flintwork, and the tiling.
“The planners wanted us to show them samples of the roofing and cladding materials, and we commissioned a separate tree report as part of Sophie’s application, because we back onto a railway line with large oaks, but other than that there were no real restrictions,” says Glen. “We ended up putting foundations down 2.2 metres near the trees, with 1.2 metre trenches to the front of the house.”
The new 148m2 annexe has been constructed with a highly insulated timber frame, chosen by Glen who had prior experience of this system, and the added benefit of a carpenter working alongside him. Glen’s son also helped during his holidays, and the frame was stick built onsite and erected in under a week.
“There are four different cladding materials externally, and even after 50 years in the building business I hadn’t worked with any of them before, which made for a steep learning curve,” says Glen. “We chose limestone and flint as traditional, natural materials found widely in the area, but Sophie also suggested thin-coat silicone-based render, and fibre-cement cladding panels called Equitone.”
The surrounding buildings feature a range of materials, including flint, stone, slate, tiles and white render, and the main house has flint to the front elevation. In response to this, Sophie proposed that knapped flint could be used to the south and east elevations of the annexe, with a slate tiled roof to match the neighbouring barn, and limestone cladding the dining room externally. “Varying the materials defines the elements of the building and breaks up its mass to visually reduce the overall impact,” Sophie explains.
Traditionally, panels of flintwork are joined by brickwork quoins, but for the annexe Sophie devised a more contemporary solution, using vertical aluminium angles to edge and connect the external flint walls. “They’re an unusual architectural feature and needed to be specially fabricated with brackets, which tie into both the flint and the timber frame,” explains Glen, who prepared the flints ready for a stonemason to lay.
“Usually, flint has a blockwork backing wall, but we used a cavity wall spacer product called SureCav,” Glen continues. “It’s ideal for building with flint, as it sits in the cavity and allows the flint outer skin to be built without the need for an additional blockwork leaf.”
Glen also fixed the limestone external cladding, devising a system incorporating an air gap by using tile backer-board and adhesive. The through-coloured Equitone fibre cement panels around the bedroom wing glass doors were screwed in place, with a 10mm recessed gap between each sheet and a black liner behind creating a rebate. Screws were left visible for an industrial look.
Aluminium-framed glazing in a mid-grey colour complements the Spanish slate roof tiles and grey walling flints. “We chose to have integrated Venetian blinds as a neater option which won’t gather dust,” says Glen. “Unfortunately, the little solar panel units don’t charge the batteries that efficiently, so we sometimes need to charge these separately,
but the concept still works well.”
The house is nestled into the northwest corner of the generous gardens, resulting in morning sun entering into the corridor linking the bedrooms and a south facing living room. “We wanted to make sure the house benefitted from solar gain in the winter to help keep it warm and add light into the vaulted ceilings,” notes Sophie. “As part of the landscaping design, we looked at including a covered walkway over the ramped entrance path to provide shading and privacy, and a brise soleil to shade the main living area in summer.”
Bringing natural light into the house from different angles was key, and Sophie designed both wings of the building with garden-facing glazed doors, incorporating high level triangular windows in the gable end of the vaulted living room to let in the afternoon sun.
The ceiling is lower to the dining area within the open plan space. “I wanted to define the open plan dining space, and this area has been extended out with a flat roof to form a large bay,” says Sophie, who was also commissioned to design the lighting scheme both inside and outside the house, with the family then choosing the fittings.
Jane, who is now retired after running her own graphic design business, was keen to install full height internal doors, and a company was found to custom make these in oak. “We created shadow gaps around the doors and skirtings, so that they’re flush,” says Glen. “It was quite complicated, and everything needed to be extremely accurate before the plasterers could begin work.”
Engineered oak flooring was laid over underfloor heating in the open plan kitchen, and Sophie designed the cabinet layout for Glen to install, while Jane and her mother worked together to choose colours and other finishes. The underfloor heating is zoned, so that every room in the annexe can be controlled independently for comfort and energy efficiency.
Futureproofing for Jane’s parents, Pat and Rose, involved creating enough circulation space to accommodate a wheelchair user, and installing a separate WC near the main entrance. Their parking area in front of the barn is connected to the annexe by a path suitable for wheelchairs, which was designed to be covered by an overhang supported on columns to provide shelter to the entrance, shading to the corridor, and for planting to grow on.
Sadly, Pat died just one year after the couple moved into the annexe, but Rose still enjoys living there in close proximity to her family. “We thoroughly enjoyed the build, despite some muddy weather during the winter months,”says Glen.
“We’re tremendously pleased with the result, and the finished building is really special, thanks to Sophie’s design. It’s also far more energy efficient than our own home – light, warm and contemporary – but if it gets cold in our old house then we can always head down to the annexe to warm up!”