BLYTHBURGH CONSERVATION AREA APPRAISAL July 2012 On 1 April 2019, East Suffolk Council was created by parliamentary order, covering the former districts of Suffolk Coastal District Council and Waveney District Council. The Local Government (Boundary Changes) Regulations 2018 (part 7) state that any plans, schemes, statements or strategies prepared by the predecessor council should be treated as if it had been prepared and, if so required, published by the successor council - therefore this document continues to apply to East Suffolk Council until such time that a new document is published. CONTENTS SECTION PAGE NO. INTRODUCTION 1 CONSERVATION AREAS: Planning Policy Context 1 2 GENERAL CHARACTER SUMMARY 3 3 TOPOGRAPHICAL SETTING 6 4 ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY 7 5 QUALITY OF BUILDINGS 10 6 TRADITIONAL BUILDING MATERIALS 12 7 CHARACTER OF SPACES 13 8 TREES AND GREEN SPACES 14 9 COUNTRYSIDE SETTING 15 10 FORMER USES 16 11 PROPOSED ENHANCEMENTS 17 12 STREET –BY-STREET APPRAISAL 18 12.1 The A12 (London Road) 19 12.2 Angel Lane 20 12.3 Chapel Road 21 12.4 The Street 21 12.5 Church Road 22 12.6 Church Lane 22 12.7 Priory Road 23 13 CONSERVATION AREA MANAGEMENT PLAN 25 13.1 Alterations to existing Buildings 26 13.2 Design of New Development 26 13.3 Conservation Area Boundary 27 13.4 Demolition 27 13.5 Enhancement Opportunities 27 13.6 Landscape and Trees 27 13.7 Contacts 28 14 REFERENCES & FURTHER INFORMATION 29 15 SUMMARY OF CHARACTER FEATURES MAP 30 Public consultation: this took place between 16/1/12 and 13/4/12 and included writing to all residents of the village to request views; writing to the Parish Council and providing printed copies; placing the draft on the Council’s website; including a request for views via the Council’s public magazine ‘Coastline’; issuing a press release; making available printed copies at SCDC’s planning reception; providing posters for display around the village; and inviting responses from Suffolk County Archaeology, Suffolk Preservation Society and the Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB Unit. A total of 7 responses were received which led to 8 additions, amendments and alterations to the draft appraisal, summary map and management plan prior to adoption in July 2012. INTRODUCTION The conservation area in Blythburgh was originally designated by East Suffolk County Council in 1973 and confirmed by redesignation by Suffolk Coastal District Council in 1991. The Council has a duty to review its conservation area designations from time to time, and this appraisal examines Blythburgh under a number of different headings as set out in English Heritage’s ‘Understanding Place: Conservation Area Designation, Appraisal and Management’ (2011). As such this is a straightforward appraisal of Blythburgh’s built environment in conservation terms and is followed by a gazetteer describing the village in more detail. The intent of this document is as a demonstration of ‘quality of place’, sufficient to inform those considering changes in the area. The photographs and maps are thus intended to contribute View across Angel Marshes as much as the text itself. As the English Heritage guidelines point out, the appraisal is to be read as a general overview, rather than as a comprehensive listing, and the omission of any particular building, feature or space does not imply that it is of no interest in conservation terms. Village Sign 1 CONSERVATION AREAS: Planning Policy Context There are currently thirty four Conservation Areas in the Suffolk Coastal District. The identification and protection of the historic environment is an important function of the planning system and is done through the designation of Conservation Areas in accordance with the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990. Conservation Areas are defined as ‘areas of special architectural or historic interest the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance’. These areas make an important contribution to the quality of life of local communities and visitors by safeguarding their physical historical features which sustain the sense of local distinctiveness and which are an important aspect of the character and appearance of our towns, villages and countryside. As part of this commitment there is a need to ensure there are the means available to identify what is special in the historic environment and to define through the development plan system their capacity for change. Such changes can act to help to address environmental quality in addition to achieving the aims of planning for sustainable development. National planning advice on the identification and protection of historic buildings, conservation areas and other heritage assets is set out in the National Planning Policy Framework (2012). At the District and local level, the Local Development Framework (LDF) recognises that development within conservation areas will need to accord with the requirements of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990. The Core Strategy of the LDF contains an objective ‘to maintain and enhance the quality of the distinctive natural and built environment’. The Core Strategy also provides general advice supporting the retention and enhancement of Conservation Areas whilst minimising any significant adverse impact upon them. Conservation areas are also included under general development control policies, particularly those in relation to design where one of the key criteria requires that all new development must have regard to the character of the area and its setting. The Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, in which Blythburgh is situated, includes an aim in its 2008-2013 Management Plan that the AONB will have a built environment that reflects local character and is a of a scale and form appropriate to the AONB. This Conservation Area Appraisal provides details and identifies particular features which contribute to and justify its status. The purpose of this conservation area appraisal includes: a definition of the special character of the conservation area through its special qualities: layout, uses, architecture, setting, open spaces, topography and archaeology an analysis of the area’s history, development and current status a guide to managing future change. 1 Blythburgh Conservation Area 2 2 GENERAL CHARACTER SUMMARY Blythburgh is a pleasant, small village which contains many attractive cottages grouped amongst trees and hedgerows along a network of narrow lanes. The village however is more widely noted for its magnificent church and beautiful marshland setting which combine to give dramatic views on the approaches to the village. Formerly a much larger settlement based around busy quays located along the River Blyth, Blythburgh was once a centre of commerce and prosperity. In medieval times there was a large Market Place and the Town had two chapels, two bridges, a friary and a salt-workings. Although the port and wharves have long since silted up, evidence of Blythburgh’s past wealth and importance can still be seen in the remaining buildings from this era, including the magnificent parish church. Holy Trinity Church is one of the grandest of Suffolk’s churches made even more imposing by its dramatic location dominating the flat surrounding marshland and mudflats (see photo, Introduction) on the edge of the village. The church building also dominates the village, its scale and magnificent proportions catch the eye immediately. Blythburgh's location, at the lowest road crossing of the River Blyth, proves both beneficial and detrimental to the village. The surrounding landscape, including the mudflats and salt marshes of the Blyth Estuary, is of a very high quality both environmentally and ecologically. However the A12 main road crossing the river here bisects the village and constitutes a somewhat divisive feature. Not only is it visually intrusive but it also carries a considerable volume of traffic through the village, substantially adversely affecting environmental quality. The Conservation Area, principally a designation which recognises the architectural and historic qualities of an area, has a boundary which to the north, east and west runs along the edge of the marshes and along the river bank. The southern boundary links across and excludes the more modern development which now forms the southern part of the village. Although much of the surrounding marshland and mud flats, as well as the river itself, are not included within the Conservation Area, this does not mean that the landscape setting of the village is any less important than the area that has been included. The value and importance of the landscape setting is recognised by its designation as part of the Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. 3 Holy Trinity Church 4 Blythburgh: Aerial View 2001 5 3 TOPOGRAPHICAL SETTING Blythburgh is a small riverside village in east Suffolk about four miles east of the market town of Halesworth. The village lies on the south bank of the River Blyth adjoining the lowest bridging point, about three miles upstream from the mouth of the river between Southwold and the coastal village of Walberswick. The River Blyth was at one time navigable up to Halesworth as the Blyth Navigation (1761), but nowadays one can only reach as far as Blythburgh, and that depends on a good tide. The village sits astride the modern A12 road. In the 18th Century this was a turnpike road in the control of the Ipswich to South Town (Great Yarmouth) Trust, for which a former toll- house can be found just north of the White Hart Inn on the approach to the bridge. From 1859 passengers could join the railway network further inland at Halesworth on the East Suffolk line running between Ipswich and Lowestoft. The village is on the coastal ‘Sandlings’ strip, where the sandy soils were best suited historically to sheep farming and rabbit warrens. The underlying geology is essentially crag deposits, sands and gravels laid down during the late Pliocene period over the chalk, which underlies all of Suffolk at depth.