Shalstone Conservation Area

SHALSTONE CONSERVATION AREA Designated 1st January 1971

Shalstone is a small linear type village built across a shallow valley along the floor of which runs a narrow tributary of the River Ouse, and situated approximately half a mile north of A422 Buckingham to Brackley Road.

Shalstone Ponds

Drain

BM 106.77m Pumping Station 106.3m Brook House

Work s

Spinney TCB

House MAIN STREET

Home Farm

107.9m

Hall

Shalstone

Pp The ne House

LB Catherine’s Close

Meadowbank Grey Owl Cottage The Old School House Glebe House GLEBE HOUSE

DRIVE

118.1m Tr ee Tops The Old Rectory Tennis Court

Garden St Edward’s Church Cottage

120.2m The Nook BM 122.68m BM 122.33m

121.2m Cattle Grid

Shalstone Manor

Pond

Not to a recognised scale

1 Shalstone Conservation Area

The main part of the village is built almost entirely of stone with roofs of either red brown clay tiles or grey slates. The village has many attractive buildings and the area defined for conservation contains three properties which are included on the Statutory List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest and three on the Supplementary List.

As the village lies well back from the main road network only local traffic tends to penetrate inside and the village thus enjoys a pleasantly isolated existence. The single street forms a corridor throughout the greater part of the village, its narrowness being emphasised by roadside cottages, bold walls, belts of trees and well kept hedges. Slight bends in the road contain the views and add further interest to the street picture.

The southern approach to the village is by way of iron fenced ‘drive’ on a slight upgrade through a pleasant parkland setting. The beginning of the village is visible on the crest of the rise in the form of the parish church and the magnificent trees in the grounds of the Manor House. Past these, the narrow road curves and descends between stone cottages, farm buildings, yew trees and hedges, giving a sense of almost total containment on either side. The recent opening up of the frontage on the eastern side of the road, however, has resulted in a break in continuity in the street picture.

At the bottom of its descent the street develops a sudden ‘S’ bend and here reveals the well treed very small ‘village green’ area with several cottages set well back from the road on rising ground beyond the narrow brook. The road then crosses the brook via a small brick parapeted bridge and ascends out of the village.

Other visual features include the attractive stone walls and stone flagged pavements and pavement edgings, the two drinking fountains and the well kept hedges in front of the church. There are some pleasant views from the church, and across rising meadowland from the vicinity of ‘The Green’ and westwards beyond the bridge. There are also some very important trees in the village, particularly those near ‘The Green’, the parkland trees on the southern approach and in the grounds of the Manor House, and the yes trees on the descent into the village from this approach. The general treescape in Shalstone is excellent.

December 2008