Moulton Conservation Area Appraisal May 2008 Moulton Conservation Area Appraisal Author: Paul Edwards Dipl Arch (Oxford) RIBA IHBC Historic Environment Specialist CONTENTS Brookside 31 Key Characteristics 4 Gardens, East of Brookside 31 St Peter’s Churchyard 32 Boundary Map 5 French Hall Gardens 32 Moulton Hall Gardens 32 Introduction 6 Extent of loss Intrusion & Damage 32 Special Interest of the Conservation Area 8 Location & Context 8 Neutral Areas 33 General Character & Plan Form 9 Landscape Setting 9 General condition of the Area 33 History, Development & Archaeology 10 Buildings at Risk 33 Archaeology 13 Problems Pressures & Capacity for Change 33 Spatial Analysis 13 The Central Meadows 13 Community Involvement 33 The Green, Bridge Street, Brookside, River Kennett, The Street 14 Boundary Revisions 34 Character analysis 16 Local Generic Guidance 34 The Church & Its Environs 16 The Manor Domain 16 Summary of Issues 36 The Village 19 The Central Meadows, Gazeley Road, Bridge Street Management Proposals 36 and Newmarket Road 19 Newmarket Road 21 Appendix 1 Useful Information 37 The Street 22 Moulton Manor 27 Appendix 2 Bibliography 38 Church Road 27 Appendix 3 Extract from Sites & Monuments Record 39 Local Detail 28 Suffolk County Council Sites & Monuments Record 40 Prevalent Local Building Materials 29 Moulton Views and Open space map 41 Green spaces 31 Central Meadows 31 Moulton Built Environment map 42 Moulton Conservation Area Appraisal (May 2008) Forest Heath District Council 3 KEY CHARACTERISTICS • Rural village • Saxon origins • Developed along a trade route at a river crossing • Nestles in the folds of West Suffolk hills between Primrose Hill in the east and Folly hill and Thrift covert in the west. • Meadows in the heart of the village; neither too manicured nor neglected, but with livestock, a pond, and recreation ground. • Gently curving linear spaces with fine visual sequences in The Street and Brookside • The River Kennett, its grassy banks, bridges and fords • Low density landscape dominated area • Attractive variation in spaces between buildings • Two manors with extant manorial sites • Medieval Packhorse Bridge & Georgian stone bridge in Brookside • Medieval Church of St Peter • Moulton Hall, a fine and unspoilt Georgian house • Groups of timber-framed and thatched cottages th • Groups of 19 -century flint, brick and slate cottages. • Extensive flint and brick boundary walls • Restored village pump on The Green • Fine green spaces • Fine mature trees . INTORDUCTION Moulton Conservation Area Appraisal (May 2008) Forest Heath District Council 4 (Fig 1) Moulton Conservation Area Map Moulton Conservation Area Appraisal (May 2008) Forest Heath District Council 5 Within our cities, towns and villages are areas of special architectural and historic character, which are to be valued and protected as a central part of our cultural identity. They contribute in many ways to our understanding of the present and the past and add quality to our lives. They are also of immense importance to tourism. They are a precious and irreplaceable asset, which once lost are gone forever. Caring for them is a dynamic process which involves managing change. This does not mean keeping everything from the past but it does mean making careful judgements about the value and significance of buildings and landscapes. Critical to these decisions is an understanding and appreciation of an areas character, including its social and economic background and the way in which such factors have shaped its urban fabric. This should be the starting point for making decisions about both (fig 2) The Village pump & the Packhorse Bridge, Moulton Village icons its management and its future. of special architectural or historic October 1988; variations were made on Conservation areas were introduced interest, the character or appearance of 30th January 1991. It presently has an through the Civic Amenities Act in 1967 which it is desirable to preserve or area of 25.17 hectares. and there are now 13 in Forest Heath enhance.’ The Moulton Conservation District. Conservation areas are ‘areas Area was first designated on 13th Designation introduces additional Moulton Conservation Area Appraisal (May 2008) Forest Heath District Council 6 planning controls over the demolition of development documents and buildings but also the contribution made buildings, over minor development and development control decisions. It not by trees, hedges and other natural or the protection of trees. It may mean a only takes into account the contribution cultivated features. requirement for more exacting made to the character of the area by standards of design for alterations and important local buildings, local Designation as a conservation area is new development. Having designated a constructional detail, traditional not intended to prevent new conservation area, the District Council materials and spaces formed by the development or stifle the area’s has a duty to review the conservation area and having consulted the local community, will draw up proposals for the preservation and enhancement of the area. The Moulton Conservation area includes the land between The Street and Brookside and; and from Bridge Street and the Packhorse Bridge to Church Road. It includes the garden land of houses in those roads; St Peter’s Church and churchyard; The Priory, Moulton Hall and French Hall and their curtilages. The survey of the village for the appraisal took place in October and December 2006. The first public consultation took place on 12th December 2006 and subsequently on the internet in February 2007 This conservation area appraisal is designed to set out the significance of the Moulton Conservation Area which will provide a sound basis for local (fig 3) Thatched cottages in Bridge Street Moulton Conservation Area Appraisal (May 2008) Forest Heath District Council 7 economic life or potential, but Forest there are business units. engineering works and a public house. Heath Council will expect a high degree of attention to be paid to design, repair, The parish church holds regular There was a population of 1030 in 453 and maintenance in such areas. services and the village maintains a dwellings in 2006. thriving shop and post office; primary When exercising its planning powers, it school, village hall, forge and The village centre is located at the will pay special attention to the preservation and enhancement of the conservation area according to the policies for the built environment set out in the Forest Heath Local Plan and the forthcoming Local Development Framework. SPECIAL INTEREST OF THE CONSERVATION AREA Location & Context Moulton is a rural village in the west of Suffolk, 6 km east of Newmarket and 18 km west of Bury St Edmunds. Its northern and southern boundaries are coincidental with the county boundary with Cambridgeshire. The parish has an area of about 12.92 sq. km, which includes arable land, and the pasture and gallops of the stables and stud farms to the north and west of the village. Recent expansion of equine facilities in the parish brought new studs off the Cheveley Road and at Moulton © Crown Copyright. All rights reserved. Licence No. 100023282 20007 Paddocks. The Animal Health Trust has its facilities north of the parish where (Fig 3) Location Plan Moulton Conservation Area Appraisal (May 2008) Forest Heath District Council 8 crossing of the Gazeley to Newmarket and playing fields. The River Kennett fields, along four roads, in a low road and the B1085, Kennett to Dalham runs south-north on the eastern border density, landscape dominated road. of the meadows. configuration. General Character & Plan Form The historic centre of the village There are significant areas of mid to contains 16th- century to 19th-century late 20th-century residential estate The village buildings were built on the vernacular buildings set around a development to north-west and south of outside edge of roads enclosing an central green area, comprising playing the village centre. extensive rectangular area of meadows fields, private meadows and playing Landscape Setting Significant landmarks and panoramas. The village lies on level ground in the shallow valley of the river Kennett, in a gently undulating chalk landscape and between two hills, Primrose Hill to the east and Folly Hill & Thrift Covert to the west. The terrain obscures some of the 20th-century estate development, hidden by folds in the valley. The approach from the south in particular, (from Dalham and Cheveley) offers the delightful sight of St. Peter’s Church against an unspoilt, wooded hillside. The best viewpoints are from the roads leading into the village due to their elevated position and from many of the footpaths: For example, FP7 above the church; FPs 1 and 11 along the ridge through Ashley Heath Stud and from Cheveley Road to Mill Road, Ashley; looking north from the open fields along (fig 4) The village lies in a shallow valley between , Primrose Hill, Thrift Covert and Folly Hill BR14 with a distant view towards the Moulton Conservation Area Appraisal (May 2008) Forest Heath District Council 9 church. Archbishop of Canterbury. HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT & In the 13th-century this manor was also ARCHAELOGY known as Stonehall Manor, which passed through the hands of (among others) the de Cockfields, de The northern boundary of the parish is Beauchamps, de Chyverstons and formed by the Icknield Way, a route that Lutterell families. originated in prehistoric times; was improved and straightened by Roman There was also the sub-manor of engineers and followed the chalk French Hall which passed through the uplands that ran from Wiltshire to the hands of the de Agnelli, Talmach, Wash. Staford, Trace and in the 18th-century, There is scattered archaeological the Affleck family of Dalham. The two evidence in the parish of activity in the manors were joined in the 18th-century Bronze Age & during the Roman by the Duke of Rutland. occupation. The next physical evidence is that of the 12th century fabric in the The site of the medieval manor domain church.