Conservation Area Appraisal Mells
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Conservation Area Appraisal Mells September 2010 www.mendip.gov.uk CustomerCustomer Services Services 01749 648999 01749 648999 This appraisal aims to identify the essential elements that give an area its character. It is, therefore, a snapshot in time. Elements and details of an area may be important even if they are not specifically referred to in the text. Any comments, observations or suggestions relating to this document should be sent to: Customer Services Mendip District Council Cannards Grave Road Shepton Mallet Somerset BA4 5BT Tel: 01749 648999 Fax: 01749 344050 Email: [email protected] www.mendip.gov.uk September 2010 This document has been written on behalf of Mendip District Council by: John Wykes (Planning Consultant) Editing and design by Mendip District Council 2 www.mendip.gov.uk 2 Contents 1. Introduction ..................................................................................... 4 2. Location and Landscape Setting ..................................................... 6 3. History and Development ................................................................ 8 4. Character of Mells ......................................................................... 16 5. Spatial Analysis ............................................................................. 17 6. Character Analysis ........................................................................ 24 7. Local Building Patterns .................................................................. 28 8. Synthesis of Appraisal ................................................................... 42 Appendix 1: Drawings ......................................................................... ..43 Summary of Key Characteristics ......................................................... ..45 3 Customer Services 01749 648999 3 1. Introduction 1.1 The Mells Conservation Area was 1.4 The purpose of this appraisal is to first designated in September 1969 by define the qualities of the area that Somerset County Council. make it worthy of conservation area status. A clear, comprehensive 1.2 Section 69 of the Planning (Listed appraisal of the character of a Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act conservation area provides a sound 1990 imposes a duty on Local basis for development control Planning Authorities to determine from decisions and for developing initiatives time to time which parts of their area to improve the area. It will also enable are „areas of special architectural or the development of a robust policy historic interest, the character or framework for the future management appearance of which it is desirable to of the area, on which applications can preserve or enhance‟ and to designate be considered. these areas as conservation areas. 1.5 This appraisal has been produced 1.3 Planning authorities also have a in accordance with the English duty to protect these areas from Heritage publication: „Guidance on development which would harm their Conservation Area Appraisals‟ (August special historic or architectural 2005). character and this is reflected in the policies contained in Mendip District 1.6 This appraisal was endorsed by Council‟s Adopted Local Plan. the council on 29th September 2010 as a material planning consideration, and will be taken into account when assessing local planning applications. 4 www.mendip.gov.uk 4 1. Introduction St Andrew’s Church S elwood Street G a y S t r e e t Mells l il H s ne t opLa n T e T Little Green Holes Lane Mells Green Key Conservation Area © Crown copyright. All rights reserved 100019309 2009 Ordnance Survey Map showing Mells Conservation Area Boundary Customer Services 01749 648999 5 2. Location and Landscape Setting 2.1 Mells is situated about two miles parkland at Mells Park to the west. (5km) west of Frome and three miles This latter area is an important (6km) south-south-east of Radstock, in example of 18th- and 19th-century the valley of the Mells River (also garden design, containing many referred to as the Mells Stream). The ornamental and specimen trees. A topography is one of low, rounded large former quarry is situated to the hills, rising to 145m AOD (Above south of the village and a working site, Ordnance Datum) at Newbury Hill to Whatley Quarry, to the south-east, on the north of the village and about the road to Frome. 130m at Mells Green to the south. The watercourse is incised into the valley 2.3 The village is characterised by floor, particularly at the eastern end of extensive areas of green space within the settlement, and in the conservation its core, along the watercourse and on area its east-west course is crossed the southern valley side, at Mells and by four road bridges and a footbridge. Little Greens. Private gardens, Most of the road approaches to the especially around the Rectory and at village descend steeply to the valley Mells Manor, add to the feeling of floor. buildings set in a verdant landscape with only a sense of a more urban 2.2 The valley floor is well wooded and group of buildings on the Selwood and there are larger areas of woodland at New Street junction. Tedbury Camp to the east and Woodlands End and the green spaces of the valley floor 6 www.mendip.gov.uk 6 3. History and Development 3.8 There are 59 entries in the List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest within the Mells Conservation Area, accounting for individual buildings or structures (some entries cover more than one building/structure). The Parish Church and Mells Manor are listed Grade I; Mells Barn, the „Talbot‟, the War Memorial, the Lock-up, and three of the New Street houses are listed Grade II*. 3.9 The Manor House gardens, within the conservation area, are a Grade I site on English Heritage‟s Register of St Andrew’s Church, Parks and Gardens and Mells Park, west tower and porch only partly within the conservation area at its western extremity, is a Grade II site. Map Progression 3.10 Although its original purpose was 3.12 The c1969 Ordnance Survey an interest in land ownership from map shows comparatively more where tithes should be collected, the substantial development; however the tithe map of circa 1840 for Mells local authority housing of the Fairview/ shows sufficient information to Park Hill area lies just outside the compare with the subsequent conservation area to the north-east on Ordnance Survey mapping. Mells has land to the north of the Post Office, seen very little development since the and the similar build, Longfield, with its settlement was shown on the tithe new access roads, behind the map of circa 1840. The pattern of Selwood Road housing, lies just to the streets within the village is clear and west of the conservation area has essentially remained unchanged, boundary. and the clusters of buildings indicated in c1840 are in existence today. 3.13 The only significant development within the conservation area has been 3.11 The first significant addition to the along the southern side of Top Lane village is shown on the ordnance and a small cluster either side of the Syurvey map of circa 1930 where a junction with Holes Lane. These short ribbon development of local dwellings are detached homes, mostly authority type housing was built along set back from the lane in reasonably the south side of Selwood Road. large gardens, retaining to some extent the character of the rural lane. 11 Customer Services 01749 648999 11 2. Location and Landscape Setting PLC. www.getmapping.com Imagery copyright Imagery copyright Getmapping Key Conservation Area Aerial Photograph showing Mells Conservation Area Boundary Customer Services 01749 648999 7 3. History and Development 3.1 There is a rich prehistoric archaeology along the course of the Mells River, exemplified by Pleistocene animal bones and human evidence at Lime Kiln Hill Quarry; two promontory forts at Wadbury and Tedbury; a possible Romano-British enclosure south-east of Little Green; and scatters of Romano- British pottery north of the village. There are also the remains of possible a settlement west-north-west of the Manor New Street and St Andrew’s Church House of indeterminate date. 3.2 Mells was one of Glastonbury Abbey‟s many granges until the Dissolution in 1539. The wealth of monastic patronage is seen in the size of the surviving Tithe Barn and in the original form of the Manor House. Around 1470 Abbot John Selwood laid out New Street with its tenements and inn as a planned, speculative development, part of a larger, unrealised scheme. The Parish Church‟s grandeur derived from local, lay contributions, mainly from the Mendip wool trade. 3.3 Lay ownership and patronage were Entrance to Mells Park important from the mid 16th century onwards with the rebuilding and extension of the Manor House and a relocation of the main house to Mells Park in 1724 by Thomas Strangways Horner. (Thomas Horner purchased the estate in 1543 and bequeathed it to his nephew, Sir John Horner.) The Park was previously a deer park, enclosed in the early 17th century and the new house benefited from the development of a picturesque landscape created by Thomas Horner at the end of the 18th century. Mells Manor 8 www.mendip.gov.uk 8 3. History and Development 3.4 The Manor House became a production of broad cloth in the wider farmhouse, suffering some reduction area around Frome. There was a in its buildings, until the Horners water-powered woollen mill at the moved back in 1900. Mells Park was western end of the village near Bilboa rebuilt after a fire in 1917 to the and a dye mill at Woodlands End. designs of Sir Edwin