Martock Village Design Statement Martock Village Design Statement

Version 1.0 ,January 2020 Version Martock Village Design Statement Martock Village Design Statement Contents 1 Foreword 2 2 Location 3 3 The village setting 5 4 History 10 5 Buildings 13 6 The Conservation Area 23 7 Important buildings 24 8 Spaces and boundaries 26 9 A design guide for developers 30 10 Annexes 33 Information sources Supplementary documents Using the Village Design Statement Eric Seeley, Hurst All maps in this document are produced using Parish Online (https://www.parish-online.co.uk) and subject to OS Crown Content Design Statement Village Martock Copyright (100054346) 1 1 Foreword This Design Statement has been prepared by • It provides a supplementary planning docu- a group of interested residents, who are also ment to the Martock Neighbourhood Plan members of the Neighbourhood Plan Steering when adopted by South Somerset District Group, following a detailed information gath- Council. It can be used to assess the quality ering and consultation process within the vil- and appropriateness of any development lage. It has been stimulated by a concern that requiring planning consent houses built in the last half-century or so in the • It provides a framework that will allow the village have not done justice to the fine archi- community to assess proposed develop- tectural tradition laid down over the centuries ments and to make recommendations for that has produced one of Somerset’s most at- any improvements necessary. tractive villages. This Design Statement describes the qualities of the village that the community regards high- ly and attempts to set out how these might be safeguarded and enhanced by future development. Each chapter consists of a description and an analysis, supported by photographs, of key qualities that characterise the village. Each sec- tion also has a summary statement to provide guidance for action. Photograph This Design Statement has a number of differ- ent functions. • It provides a source of illustrated information about the village, its history, its physical characteristics and is architecture. • It provides guidance for all prospective developers (ranging from individuals seeking to expand their own house through to large scale property development companies) on how to create buildings that complement and enhance the sense of place that we en- joy in Martock that has been handed down to us by the genius of past builders and ar- chitects. 1 Foreword Design Statement Village Martock 2 2 Location Martock lies at the centre of the West Coun- try peninsular some 10km east of Yeovil. It is around 50km from the two coasts, the Bristol Channel and the English Channel and for centuries was an important staging post on the road between them. A Roman pavement, the Fosse Way from the channel port now Exeter to what is now Lincoln, runs just to the east of the village. The Roman fortress of Lindinis, now Ilchester, lies just to the north east and the village is overlooked by Ham Hill, a short walk to the south east, a fortified lookout post which has from the earliest times, controlled traffic and trade. Most of the western boundary of the Parish of Martock is the formed by the river Parrett, a small river draining the hills to the south east of Martock down to the Bristol Channel. A tributary of the Parrett, known by various names but in the village as Hurst Brook, bisects both the Parish and the village. Foldhill The clay loam soils of the area, combined with the low-lying flat nature of the countryside, have ensured fertile land but also considerable seasonal flooding. Most of the old village settlement is around 15m above mean sea level and nestles at the bottom of a horseshoe shaped range of low hills to the north east (Foldhill) and south (Crip- ple, Halletts, Ringwell and Percombe) that rise to around 50m. The north west of the village Percombe Hill opens out onto the Moors, a large area of flat Cripple Hill land around 10m above sea level. Ringwell Hill Halletts Hill Martock Parish. The south east boundary is the old Fosse Way, now the A303. The western boundary is the River Location Parrett (and, in the northern tip, Linnets Mead Rhyne). The higher land around the village shown shaded above 30m, gives way to the low-lying Moors in the north west © Crown copyright and database right. All rights reserved (100054346) 2019 2 Design Statement Village Martock 3 Martock CP Martock north Martock south Martock CP The Parish consists of six settlements, Coat, Stapleton, Martock, Hurst, Bower Hinton and Parrett Works. Three of these, Martock, Hurst and Bower Hinton have gradually coalesced into a single long village along the main road through the Parish, now the B3165. The whole is now known as Martock. In this document ‘Martock’ refers to all thee settlements and ‘old Martock’ will be used when referring to the historic settlement. Location; design messages. Any substantial new development outside the exist- ing built area should be close to the centre expand- ing the village to the east and west. Date Created: 20-1-2019 | Map Centre (Easting/Northing): 346532 / 119854 | Scale: 1:8000 | © Crown copyright and database Extensions should not intrude further onto the The oldright. settlement All rights reserved (100054346) of Martock 2019 © Contains Ordnanceconsists Survey Data of : Crown the copyright streets and database right 2019 Hurst andDate Created: Bower 20-1-2019 Hinton, | Map Centre (Easting/Northing): south of 346027 old / 118092 Martock. | Scale: 1:8000 The| © Crown copyright and database higher land to the north and south of the village in the lower part of this map, Water Street, Church right. All rights reserved (100054346) 2019 © Contains Ordnance Survey Data : Crown copyright and database right 2019 boundary is the river, Hurst Brook, seen across the Street and East Street. The rural separation between Martock and neigh- top of this map. Bower Hinton was a collection of bouring villages must be respected and, as a general The buildings in the top half, adjoining North Street, farms around a sqaure road grid, on a level land that rule, should be at least two fields. date mainly from Victorian times and later after is some 20m higher than the rest of the village. development there was stimulated by the railway, Development should avoid the low-lying land near Ribbon infill, with long gardens down to the original closed in 1964, the track of which is still an obvious the rivers that is flood-prone. field edge, joined Hurst to Bower Hinton in the 18th feature of the village. and 19th Century The A303 is on the bottom right, roughly following the old Fosse Way Location Maps © Crown copyright and database right. All rights re- 2 Design Statement Village Martock served (100054346) 2019 4 3 The village setting The shape and character of Martock is deter- mined by the landscape within which it has evolved. It lies on the southern fringe of the Somerset Moors at the point where the river Parrett and its tributary, Hurst Brook, leave the low hills of the Yeovil Scarpland. On the north bank of Hurst Brook is the oldest part of the settlement of Martock dominated by its par- ticularly fine 16th century, church and the 13th century hall of the Wells Diocese Treasurer’s House. South of Hurst Brook are the villages of Hurst and Bower Hinton. With the settlement of old Martock, the three now form now continuous ribbon settlement some 4 km long that is the Martock sits at the edge of the Somerset Moors and present-day village of Martock. This Martock Levels, a former wetland now largely drained, lying Village Design Statement covers all three set- below the 10m contour. This is a morning view from tlements. the Moors looking south east across Coat and Martock to Ham Hill which, at 125m, is the highest point in the area. The landscape The low flat land in the north west is around From the raised land around the village, and 10m above mean sea level on the moors and in from the flat Moors, the far horizons are formed the village valley bottom. This rises to around by the larger and more distant hill ranges of the The view of the village from Ham Hill looking north 50m along Foldhill to the north west and to Quantocks, Poldens and Mendips to the north west towards the Moors . Most of the buildings are 60m along Cripple, Halletts, Ringwell and Per- and, in the south, the Blackdowns. The view hidden in Hurst Brook valley but the Church tower can be seen in the centre. More distant church setting come Hills to the south. These low hills, shown west looks across the Moors with its character- towers are the only visible elements of other settle- on the map on page 3, form a horseshoe of istic landmarks such as Burrow Hill topped with ments that dot the Moors. higher ground within which the village is set. its single tree and, here and there, straight rows of mature Lombardy Poplars often grown To the south east, just inside the neighbouring to provide shelter for the orchards. parish, is Ham Hill, an ancient Iron Age fortress, Immediately around the village there are the re-purposed by the Romans as a vantage point The landscape around the village has been village remains of many smallholdings and orchards, and now topped with a dominant war memo- formed by agriculture. The fertile land has en- typically long thin fields radiating out from the rial. At 120m, it is twice as high as the lower sured that little of the old natural woodland settlement.

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