Sycamore House, Kirkthorpe Lane, Heath, Wakefield, West Yorkshire Wf1 5Sl
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Heritage Statement, Design & Access Statement and Impact Assessment in support of an application for ‘changes to the vehicular access’ at SYCAMORE HOUSE, KIRKTHORPE LANE, HEATH, WAKEFIELD, WEST YORKSHIRE WF1 5SL For NOEL STACKHOUSE OCTOBER 2020 National Grid Reference: SE 35555 19993 Britt Harwood PG Dip (Arch) PG Dip (Bldg Cons) RIBA SCA AABC inc-architecture ltd, the barn, mock hall farm, 63 leeds road, mirfield, west yorkshire wf14 0da m. 07831 275394; w. inc-architecture.com; e. [email protected] Registered in England company no. 6039806 A Royal Institute of British Architects Chartered Practice LIST OF CONTENTS 1.0 INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND INFORMATION 1.1 Purpose of the Heritage Statement 1.2 Methodology 1.3 Background Information 1.3.1 The Character of the Area 1.3.2 The Historic Development of Heath 1.3.3 Heath during the 19th and 20th centuries 1.3.4 Planning History 2.0 HERITAGE STATEMENT & IMPACT ASSESSMENT 2.1 The Listing Description 2.2 Statement of Significance 2.3 Proposal 2.4 Impact Assessment 3.0 LIST OF QUOTATIONS 4.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY Fig 01. (Cover photo) Front elevation of Sycamore House (Grade II) in 2017 from the north- west 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 PURPOSE OF THE HERITAGE STATEMENT 1.1.1 Sycamore House lies within a terrace of houses situated on the southern side of Heath Common in the West Yorkshire village of Heath. The property was bought by the current owner Mr Noel Stackhouse in February 2017. Following an initial phase of urgent repairs to the roof (permission for which was granted in April 2018), Planning and Listed Building consent were awarded in November 2018 for the building’s repair and minor alteration and the fabric repairs have now been complete in a sensitive manner using methods and materials contemporary with the buildings original construction. 1.1.2 Historically the building was accessed via a horseshoe shaped carriageway to the front of the property over the common. At some point towards the end of the 20th century this access fell out of use and the front garden was fully enclosed by fences and hedges. Since then the only vehicular access to the property has been into the rear yard with right of way over a narrow drive in the ownership of the neighbouring property, Little Sycamore. The rear yard is narrow (intended only for horses which were stabled in the rear range) and not of sufficient width for a vehicle to turn into or park without obstructing the doors opening out onto the yard, so for some time the owners of Sycamore House and their visitors have been forced to park on other parts of the common. 1.1.3 The purpose of this Heritage Statement is to compile Historic Evidence of the original horseshoe carriage drive and its link across the Heath and assess their significance and historic development in support of an application to reinstate this historic landscape feature and regain the owners right of access over the common. 1.1.4 A Heritage Statement for Sycamore House was prepared and submitted with the Planning & Listed Building applications in 2018 and whilst this report does not intend to repeat the detail of that report, the background information relating to the historic development of Heath has been included in a condensed form in this report with additional historic maps and photographs not previously included to help establish the origins and longevity of the horseshoe-shaped carriage drive. 1.2 METHODOLOGY 1.2.1 This Heritage Statement has been prepared by conservation accredited architect Britt Harwood of inc. architecture ltd in line with Historic England 2019 Statement of Heritage Significance: Analysing Significance in Heritage Assets Historic England Advice Note 12. The Statement is illustrated by her photographs taken in October 2020 and other archive material (the sources of which are identified). 1.2.2 In developing the proposal, due reference has been made to the following guidance: - Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 - National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) - Planning Practice Guidance (PPG) (2014) - Historic England’s Advice Note 2: Making Changes to Heritage Assets The Historic Development of the site is based on an assessment of relevant material from Wakefield Local Studies Library and the West Yorkshire Archives in Wakefield and Leeds. 1.2.3 The Heritage Statement is divided into two sections and is supported by two appendices. Section One provides the Background Information and includes: - A description of the character of the area and Heath’s location in relation to its neighbouring principal towns and cities. - A summary of the historic development of Heath. - The development of Heath during the 19th and 20th centuries. - The Planning history of Sycamore House. 1.2.4 Section Two contains the Historic Record and Impact Assessment and includes: - The listing description of The Terrace (which includes Little Sycamore, Sycamore House and Sycamore Cottage). - A Statement of Significance. - An assessment of the impact the reinstatement of the historic carriageway would have on the significance of the listed building and the wider Conservation Area. Fig 02. The current OS map showing the location of Heath (identified by the red circle) in relation to Wakefield. Crown copyright. 1.3 BACKGROUND INFORMATION 1.3.1 THE CHARACTER OF THE AREA 1.3.1.1 Heath village lies approximately 2 miles east of Wakefield and 8 miles west of Pontefract in the parish of Warmfield and the West Riding of Yorkshire (Fig 02). The village comprises around fifty houses overlooking Heath Common and centred on Heath Hall, constructed c.1709 by the Smyth family (Fig 03). Fig 03. Heath Hall from the north-west 1.3.1.2 Heath Old Hall (Fig. 04) (demolished in the 1960’s) originally stood on the western side of the settlement and was thought to date from 1595, “It comprised two storeys and a Fig 04. Archive photograph of Old Heath Hall (now demolished) [Source: www.lostheritage.org.uk ] symmetrical front with central porch and flanking turret bays in a Palladian villa style. Alterations were carried out in C18. Ashlar front with hammer-dressed stone to rear and Welsh slate and lead roof….. Ingham includes this Elizabethan house in his list of fortified houses. Had decorative battlements but otherwise not fortified although the turrets do reflect the continuity of castle architectural forms.” (1) 1.3.1.3 There are 43 listing entries within the Heath Conservation Area (Fig. 05) on The National Heritage List for England (Fig. 06). These include at least 33 individual listed buildings (some listing entries are for rows of houses/cottages or groups of farm buildings), the remainder of entries being made up of landscape features such as gate posts and other enclosures. Fig 05. Heath Conservation Area Map, Wakefield Council copyright. [http://www.wakefield.gov.uk/Documents/planning/planning- developmentmanagement/conservation-area-maps.pdf]. Little Sycamore, Sycamore House and Sycamore Cottage identified in red. 1.3.1.4 There are five Grade I, two Grade II* and six Grade II listing entries for the buildings and landscape features at and in the vicinity of Heath Hall alone, which provides an indication of the status and significance of the estate and the village as a whole in its national context. 1.3.1.5 The Common comprises around 131 acres of open land which remarkably survived enclosure and in the late 19th century gained registered common status. It provides a relatively unspoilt and powerful setting to the village. 1.3.1.6 “Heath lies within the parish of Warmfield, whose chief constituents are, Warmfield Green itself to the east, Kirkthorpe to the north and Heath occupying the north-western sector. The River Calder forms the most obvious natural boundary, supplemented in the nineteenth century by a triangle of railway lines, whilst the busy traffic route between Wakefield and Doncaster, now to the outsider at least, appears to divide Horse Race End from the remainder of the village. Heath itself occupies the higher ground in the parish, and has splendid views overlooking the Calder valley, a natural asset that was recognised by the builder of Old Heath Hall in the sixteenth century. This prospect subsequently tempted other wealthy merchants to build their grand houses on the choicest sites round the Common, though it should be emphasised that before the age of the enclosure movement, commons as such were a common place! As power was accumulated in the hands of one family, the Smyths, there was the temptation to achieve total enclosure of the village, a scheme successfully resisted in the 1840s. This first sign of decline of one family’s power was further emphasised by the failure of their scheme of 1894 to link Wakefield and Heath directly, by roads lined with conventional Victorian housing. Because these schemes proved abortive Heath today remains an ‘unimproved’ village.” (2) Fig 06. Extract map from the National Heritage List for England website identifying (with blue triangles) the location of the listed buildings and landscape features within the Heath Conservation Area (source: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/map-search ) 1.3.1.7 The distinctive value of Heath was recognised as early as 1851 by Joseph Hunter, who remarked in his book: Antiquarian Notices of Lupset, The Heath, Sharlston and Ackton, “Around the Heath various mansions have been built, the residences of families of distinction; and along with them houses of humbler pretentions have risen, and cottages also. But the mansions are in so much higher a ratio to the dwellings of an inferior class that the scene is almost unique, and it is certainly altogether one of the most pleasing which English rural scenery presents.” (3).