Village Design Statement Highclere and Penwood 2002 1 THE HIGHCLERE AND PENWOOD VILLAGE DESIGN STATEMENT Aims: Maintaining the rural ambience Mount Common Protecting leafy lanes and hedgerows Tubbs Lane Ensuring appropriate development September Cottage 2 CONTENTS Introduction 3 Penwood at a glance 15 Highlights and how to use it 4 Buildings 17 The Parish in context 5 Highways, byways and other features 21 Landscape 6 Conclusions 23 Settlement patterns 8 Acknowledgements 23 Highclere at a glance 12 Highclere Street at a glance 14 INTRODUCTION This Village Design Statement was adopted as How was it developed supplementary planning guidance by Basingstoke This design statement has been prepared on the and Deane Borough Council on 18 July 2002. This initiative of the Parish Council and supported by statement summary is aimed at developers, Highclere Parish Society. A small group of property owners, planners, local authorities or residents developed a series of drafts over the anyone who is involved with new development, period October 2000 - March 2001, based on changes to buildings or infrastructure. Applicants wide input and consultation: submitting plans/proposals should take the contents of this Village Design Statement into account and should note that it reflects the views • Three open workshops: Oct 2000, January of the local community. 2001 involving nearly 100 local residents; two day exhibition and open days in March 2001 Why is it needed? to comment on the draft statement The rural location of Highclere Parish adjacent to • Information from the Parish Appraisal 1999 the North Hampshire Downs, yet close to the (completed by 450 householders, 80% of the economically prosperous Thames corridor, has total) and a house height survey (March resulted in increased development pressures. 2001) The disproportionate number of large executive • Publication of drafts and key points in local style houses on relatively small plots is in danger magazines and on the village website of destroying the rural character of the Parish that • Individual consultations with residents, attracts newcomers to it in the first place. With landowners, local schools, businesses, and valued spaces under threat, now is an appropriate wider interests time to consider what development would best • Detailed discussions with planners at ensure that Highclere Parish remains vibrant, yet Basingstoke and Deane Local District retains its distinctiveness. Council. • Draft statement forwarded to interested parties for comments. Where appropriate these comments have been used to fine tune the statement. 3 HIGHLIGHTS This rural feeling is the main reason why people • Quiet lanes – the lanes in Highclere are like the Parish and decide to live here. The extensively used by walkers, cyclists and distinctive features that residents value are horse-riders and are a key place for social woodland (73% viewed this as extremely interaction important), trees and hedgerows (70%), paths • The spread-out settlements – with few and lanes (52%).* exceptions, dwellings are well spaced and The workshops showed a high degree of contribute to the rural atmosphere consensus among residents about the key • The diversity of building styles – although features of the Parish that they value: the local red brick is the dominant material, there is wide diversity of dwelling types, • The rural ambience – the area has a rural including traditional cottages and 2-storey feeling with tree-lined approaches and houses natural verges. • Interesting architectural features – hung tiles, • Outstanding landscape – the Parish sits patterned brickwork, varied rooflines and almost wholly in an Area of Outstanding details. Natural Beauty • Stunning views – overlooking fields and The main concern of residents is “creeping open spaces suburbanisation”. This is reflected through • Woodland, leafy lanes and hedgerows – the developments which are “out of scale” with their * This and other statistics in species-rich hedgerows complement broad neighbourhood, the disproportionate number of later sections are derived areas of woodland and copses, and many large family houses, and the destruction of from the Parish Appraisal survey held in 1999. fine individual trees hedgerows and trees during development. Mount Road 4 How to use this design statement THE PARISH IN CONTEXT The statements cover four main aspects of the Parish – landscape and natural environment, Highclere Parish lies astride the A343 Newbury to settlement patterns, buildings and other Andover road on the north slope of the North characteristics, including highways, byways, and Hampshire Downs, between the Downs and the utilities. There are separate sections for each of valley of the River Enborne. The Parish is 5 miles the three main settlements – Highclere, Highclere long and 1 mile wide and consists of three Street, Penwood. Each section describes the separate settlement areas – Highclere village, distinctive characteristics and residents’ desires. Highclere Street, Penwood – which nestle within Planning guidelines are given in shaded boxes, wide tracts of farmland, fields and woodland. The such as the first guideline below. Newbury Bypass has tended to isolate Wash Water and other scattered settlements along the River Enborne at the northern end from the rest General Guideline of the Parish. Residents from this area have not come forward to assist and thus it has not been Developers, property owners, planners, specifically considered, although the general local authorities or anyone who is involved comments apply. with new development, changes to Geologically, the Parish descends northwards buildings or that plans/proposals should from flinty chalk through Reading Beds (clay and take into account the guidelines contained sand), London Clay, Lower Bagshot Sand and within the Village Design Statement. Bracklesham Beds (sand and loam), with an area of Plateau Gravel covering most of the central part of the Highclere village. This rapid The guidelines are aimed to stimulate good design succession provides a diversity of landscape practice which complements and enhances both within a small area. Historically, the downland the environment and the community of Highclere area was used for sheep and the rest was forest, and Penwood. Decision - makers and developers gradually cleared for farming, leading down to are encouraged to take a holistic view of change marsh near the Enborne. A large part of the as this is the view taken by the members of this Parish is still wooded, as it includes Highclere community. An individual proposal for a Park and Great Pen Wood. development or extension may not, in isolation, be The population of the Parish has been viewed as materially damaging, however, the relatively stable over the last ten years, and is subtle cumulative effect may well be. currently approximately 1,460 inhabitants. In 6 contrast, the number of properties has continued A343 entrance to Highclere from Newbury to grow to around 560 dwellings as occupancy in existing dwellings has declined. The lack of many basic facilities in the Parish, coupled with only an hourly bus service that stops in the early evening, means that access to a car is essential for most villagers – for shopping, travelling to work, secondary school, doctor, gym etc. Whilst this could be considered an issue, it is not one that appears to be currently of great concern, indeed many see it as a benefit. The changing economic context The traditional heart of Highclere Parish has been the Highclere Estate, dominated by Highclere Castle, which occupies about half the area of the Parish. It is still the major employer, although farming only constitutes a small part of its diverse activities, which include house visitors, commercial events and the Stud. Other employers are a local school and a small distribution company. Altogether, 6% of residents are employed locally and a further 10% work from home. However, there is a strong relationship with Newbury, where 21% of LANDSCAPE residents are employed, compared with only 1% in Basingstoke or Andover. Over 90 % of With the exception of one small corner, the whole respondents to the Parish Appraisal indicate that of the Parish lies within the North Wessex Downs Newbury is their main shopping centre. Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It has many Being close to good communications for car mature trees and areas of woodland which create owners but having very poor public transport – the a natural habitat for birds and wild animals. Many A34, M4 (9 miles) and the railway to London (5 residents’ gardens also contribute visually to the miles) - has resulted in immense pressure by overall landscape. Particular characteristics of the developers to build homes for the urban affluent landscape that are highly valued are: who want to live “in the country” and commute. The majority of planning applications over the last Approaches. Almost every approach into the few years have been for clusters of new 4- and 5- Parish is attractive e.g. the arch of trees and an bedroom luxury homes, built in plots that formerly interesting bridge coming into the Parish on the contained one dwelling (which is often demolished A343 from Newbury; the approach into Penwood as part of the new development). Residents feel from Tot Hill with views over woods and grazing strongly about the increasing suburbanization of land, and Highclere Street on the A343 from the village and its loss of rural character. Andover. This rural character is the main reason why people decide to live