The Park (Yeovil) Conservation Area Appraisal
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THE PARK, YEOVIL CONSERVATION AREA APPRAISAL South Somerset District Council 2009 Approved Area South Committee 6th May 2009 1 YEOVIL THE PARK CONSERVATION AREA APPRAISAL Contents Introduction 1 The planning policy context 1 Summary of special interest – the area’s key characteristics 1 Assessment of the special interest 1 Location and context 1 General character and plan form 2 Landscape setting 2 Historic development and archaeology 2 Spatial analysis 4 Character analysis 6 Summary of issues 15 Special note - Planning control over minor works 15 Advice 15 Useful information 15 References and further reading 16 Appendix 1 - Article 4(2) Direction 16 Glossary of architectural terms 17 Maps and drawings 18 2 THE PARK, YEOVIL CONSERVATION AREA APPRAISAL Planning Policy Guidance Note 15 ‘Planning and the Historic Environment’. Introduction The Park is a distinctive area of late C19 development to the west of Yeovil town centre, south of Preston Road, with a cemetery of 1863 Summary of special interest - the to the north of the main road. The residential area’s key characteristics areas are composed of The Park, running south off Preston Road and West Park, an east-west • A relatively unspoilt late Victorian and link to Grove Avenue, which runs back to early C20 residential suburb with a range Preston Road. Characteristic architecture, the of attractive houses set in a well-treed use of a variety of details, spacious layouts and landscape valuable trees (particularly in the associated • A contemporary park retaining much of Sidney Gardens) are all-important assets. The its original planting and layout District Council has designated the area as a • A characteristic mid-Victorian municipal conservation area in April 2008. cemetery with gate lodge and mortuary chapels and mature landscaping Conservation areas are areas of special • Three Grade II Listed Buildings in the architectural or historic interest, the character of Yeovil Cemetery lodge, gates and twin which it is desirable to preserve or enhance. mortuary chapels Designation allows for strengthened planning • About twenty unlisted late Victorian and controls, gives protection to trees, and provides Edwardian buildings of individual control over the demolition of unlisted buildings. architectural merit and group value and over two dozen other unspoilt examples In order that designation is effective in of detached and semi-detached houses conserving the special interest, planning • Two large groups of attractive buildings, decisions must be based on a thorough with boundary walls, hedges, gardens understanding of the conservation area’s and a number of trees character. Appraisals are therefore essential • The use of a range of local building tools for the planning process and to manage stones and brick, combined with render, informed intervention. The appraisal document false half timber, tile hanging, terracotta, follows the content recommended in advice from slate, clay tiles and pantiles English Heritage, ‘Guidance on Conservation Rich architectural details, notably in Area Appraisals’, published by English • building mass and skylines, roofs and Heritage/Planning Advisory Service/DCMS, chimneys, porches, window surrounds, 2006. stringcourses, ironwork and boundary walls and gate piers. The planning policy context MAP ONE SHOWS THE PARK’S ASSETS The Regional Spatial Strategy and the South Somerset Local Plan (Adopted 2006) form the Assessment of the special interest context for conservation area policies. Additional guidance on the protection and management of Location and context conservation areas is contained in the national 3 The Park lies about one mile (two kilometres) WNW of Yeovil town centre, partly on and to the south of Preston Road. Immediately to the east is Queensway, a modern road improvement. There are other extensive areas of suburban development to the north and south of Preston Road and the remains of Preston Plucknett village to the west, set in modern residential surrounds and adjacent to the Yeovil Airfield and Westlands factory site. General character and plan form The character of the area is suburban but this The Park and Sidney Gardens may be qualified by the survival of some of the rural character of Preston Road, before late C19 Landscape setting development, in the form of a road cutting, hedge banks and mature trees. The area is sited on a gentle slope from north to south, with a small north-south valley, along which runs a small stream, between The Park and Grove Avenue, which is apparent on both Preston Road and West Park. The large green spaces of the Yeovil Cemetery, to the north of the main road, are enhanced by a number of fine specimen trees. Trees are also significant in the late Victorian Sidney Gardens; they appear in front gardens and in roadside planting, and seem to fill the valley behind many of the house plots. The front gardens of the larger plots are important in providing a spacious setting for the architecture and the rear and side spaces, although less visible, add to the feeling of Yeovil Cemetery handsome houses set in generous plots. The Park and West Park have the character of Historic development and archaeology one of the first generation of Garden Suburbs, with large houses set in a generous landscape. There are no known pre-C19 archaeological records for the area. Early maps, such as the The overall plan form is that of a linear main Preston Tithe Map of 1849, show little road development of mainly large detached development on Preston Road between the houses, set in gardens and with an expansive Kingston area of Yeovil and the separate village cemetery area and a rectangle of subsidiary of Preston Plucknett. There are several large roads with linear plots of detached and semi- houses set in extensive grounds, at Grove detached houses, mainly set within gardens or House and Hollands. The Park is marked on the front spaces. The triangular green space of the 1830 Day Map, associated with an area called Sidney Gardens relates closely to the layout of Ram Park. On the north side of the road, at The Park, which forms two of the three Summerlands, the Yeovil Union Workhouse was boundaries. built in 1837, designed by Sampson Kempthorne. 4 In 1863, the Yeovil Cemetery was laid out with an entrance lodge and twin chapels for Church of England and Nonconformist users. There is an adjacent Friends’ Burial Ground. Cemetery lodge and gates 1901 OS map, showing Cemetery, Sidney Gardens & developed plots In 1880, Christ Church, a large Gothic style Reformed Episcopalian Church, was built on the The Sidney Gardens were created in 1898 on eastern arm of The Park, adjacent to the one and a half acres of land at Ram Park, at a present Nos. 17 and 19. The church was cost of £760, to commemorate the Diamond demolished in 1905 and the stone was used to Jubilee of Queen Victoria. The land was a gift build Christchurch Villas, later on the line of from the Mayor, Alderman Sidney Watts. A Queensway. bandstand was donated by James Bazeley Petter and a fountain by John Howe Farley (in The Park area was laid out as building plots 1899). from the 1880s onwards (there are building dates on buildings from 1881). The 1901 Ordnance Survey map, based on a survey of 1885, shows The Union Workhouse, Grove House, the northern end of The Park (named Park Road) and the Sidney Gardens. There are several properties, including the Episcopalian Church on the south side of The Park and Grove Avenue only has developed plots on its east side. Turn-of-the-century houses in West Park The area was gradually infilled by development up to and after the Great War and there are some characterful examples of 1920s and 30s houses as well as modern properties, from the 1970s onwards. In the Second World War, an emergency water tank, for firefighting, was sited in the area. Other more recent changes include 5 the building of Queensway, with some demolition on the east fringe and changes of use of some of the larger properties for offices, nursing home and sheltered accommodation. The archaeological potential of an area of fairly recent development is likely to be small, apart from genealogical research on burials in the Cemetery. Spatial analysis The character and interrelationship of Spaces: Cemetery chapels (below left) and spaces The Park (above) There are a number of types of spaces that • Corridors, exemplified by West Park with contribute to the overall character of the some large houses on both sides, made conservation area: more subtle by its slight changes in • The formality of the Cemetery with its alignment and the steep fall to the valley memorials, grassed margins and bottom and rise back up to the junction ornamental trees, with a straight vista to with Grove Avenue; the latter is also an two identical chapels and a further view obvious corridor with houses on the through the space between them to eastern side nearer to the road than more trees and the more modern parts of those on the west; again trees and the the Cemetery gently curving road line give subtlety and • Another designed, formal space in the interest to views up and down its length Sidney Gardens whose triangular space is bounded by large houses on all three sides, although the residential area to the east is less apparent, screened by trees and hedges West Park looking back east to The Park 6 are usually a mixture of hard surfaces, paths, lawned areas, flower beds and informal shrub planting and, in many examples, trees. These spaces give individual buildings an appropriate setting and dignity and provide wildlife habitat, amenity space and visual enjoyment; even where they are not very visible from the public realm, rear gardens may be glimpsed in the gaps between buildings.