Draft Riversdale & Hedsor Road Conservation Area Appraisal DRAFT RIVERSDALE & HEDSOR ROAD CONSERVATION AREA APPRAISAL Boathouses: River Cottage (left) and Loup Lodge (right) from the Berkshire Bank Introduction published in 2016 offered helpful advice on Conservation Areas are areas of special the form appraisals could follow. The architectural or historic interest, which are opportunity has also been taken to review the considered worthy of preservation or boundaries of the conservation area: also a enhancement. They are designated under the requirement of Section 69 of the Act. provisions of Section 69 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) CHAPTER 1 Act 1990. Planning Policy Context The designation of a conservation area Riversdale and Hedsor Road was first influences the way in which a Local Planning designated a Conservation Area in 1986 by Authority applies its planning policies to that Wycombe District Council and the boundaries area. It ensures that any planning were extended in 1991. Government applications within or adjacent to the Guidance states that conservation areas conservation area should respect the special should have an up-to-date appraisal. characteristics identified in such documents, and local planning policies. This conservation area appraisal describes the main features of the special architectural The major change since the boundary and historic interest that justify designation of revisions made in 1991 has been the Riversdale and Hedsor Road as a replacement of various central government conservation area. planning policy guidance notes and statements by the National Planning Policy The recent Historic England publication Framework adopted in 2012 and the issuing Advice Note 1: Conservation Area by Historic England of updated guidance on Designation, Appraisal and Management 1 Draft Riversdale & Hedsor Road Conservation Area Appraisal conservation area designations, appraisals there was no substantial village or hamlet and management in 2016. here prior to that date. The scattered nature of the isolated pre-mid-19th-century buildings Part of the conservation area is currently affords valuable residual evidence of the within the statutory Green Belt: the two fields settlement of the area prior to 1800. and some development in Riversdale, the south side of Hedsor road up to the Ferry The seventh and eighth listed buildings are at Lane junction and the north side of the Upper the far south end of the conservation area: Hedsor Road. Cookham Bridge over the River Thames and its accompanying tollhouse, both listed Grade Summary of current national policy and II. The tollhouse informs our understanding guidance and preserves another phase in the history of Planning (Listed Buildings and the conservation area illustrating an earlier Conservation Areas) Act 1990 phase of transport development prior to the railway. Replacing a horse ferry the bridge, National Planning Policy Framework built as a toll bridge in 1840 and rebuilt in 2012 (NPPF) 1867, is a form of historic development that Historic England Advice Note 1: helped greatly improve transport links and Conservation Area Designation, revolutionise road transport throughout Appraisal and Management (2016) England. The now-disused tollhouse adds further value to the special architectural and CHAPTER 2 historic interest of the conservation area. Summary of Special Interest These eight listed buildings add special The Conservation Area encompasses a large architectural interest and, combined with the area along the east bank of the River Thames architecture of later development, make between Bourne End Railway Bridge and Riversdale and Hedsor Road an area of Cookham Road Bridge. It contains three special architectural interest. distinct historic areas of mainly 19th and early 20th century character, interspersed with a The railway station was opened in 1854 few earlier buildings from the 17th and 18th although development was initially slow apart centuries. from a few terraces of cottages being built at the station end of Hedsor Road and further Six of the pre-1820 buildings are Grade II enlargement of Abney House which had been listed and, along with their curtilages and built in 1801 (Area B in this Appraisal). settings, illustrate the use of the local Subsequently, more densely developed, this vernacular architecture and materials for area north of the River Wye is seen as part of farmhouse and cottage structures from the the village of Bourne End, whose major 17th to the early 19th century, including development has largely been north of the evidence of their past use and development. railway line. Interestingly the name ‘Bourne Moreover their scattered and isolated nature End’ migrated northwards to the station area informs and illustrates the fact that the area having previously referred to the settlement was almost entirely rural until the mid-19th around the Hedsor Road/Ferry Lane junction century when a railway station opened at the heart of the conservation area. immediately north of the current conservation area. They provide clear visual evidence that 2 Draft Riversdale & Hedsor Road Conservation Area Appraisal In Area A, which will be referred to throughout along Wessex Road: all were powered by the by its historical name of Upper Bourne End, River Wye. The mill house of the former by 1900 modest artisan housing had spread survives, albeit gentrified, on the bank of the along the north side of Hedsor Road as it River Thames and this house and associated headed eastwards, buildings on its south side watercourses remain to inform and provide being within Hedsor Parish. There was a evidential value of an earlier industrial past small group of cottages on the north and within the conservation area and add to its south side that had been built in the late 18th special historic interest. and early 19th century. This hamlet informs our historical understanding of the Although the watermills themselves have long conservation area as the cottages built here gone, the evidence of their impact on the were largely for workers and craftsmen in the historic residential development of the area nearby watermills or working at Hedsor remains clear. Wharf, the latter accessible by a footpath leading south-east towards the wharves. The area has particular special historic interest for illustrating the astonishing growth The riverbank south of the River Wye was in popularity of boating and ‘messing about then developed for prosperous middle class on the river’ in the late 19th century. Abney housing from the late 19th century and this is House played a key role in this through its now the Riversdale estate (Area C). purchase in 1880 by Charles Hammersley who became the first Vice Commodore of the These three character areas with a scatter of Upper Thames Sailing Club when it was pre-1800 houses and cottages in their midst established in 1884 and a leading light in the have particular special interest as they annual Bourne End Regatta that started in illustrate how pre-industrial rural landscapes June 1887. It was his influence that drew were developed following the arrival of the others to the area and led to the development railway. This led to the present mix of bigger of the Riversdale estate. villas and houses in the more prestigious locations fronting the River Thames but more The influence of the railway is a critical artisan and working class housing to the east, element as this led to development within the well away from the riverbanks, and along the conservation area in the 19th and early 20th Upper Hedsor Road. centuries, much of it characterised by a slow but steady growth of villas and private estates The influence of water in the form of the River providing second homes and weekend Thames and the River Wye is a key element retreats for wealthy Londoners. The in the special interest of the conservation conservation area boundary abuts the Bourne area, both in establishing its character along End railway bridge at its far northern point. the banks of the River Thames and for the The railway informs and adds to the special industrial use of its tributary, the River Wye. historic interest of Riversdale and Hedsor On this latter river there was one watermill Road as a settlement with a clear story to tell within the conservation area at the mouth of and one of special historic and cultural the River Wye where it debouches into the interest. Thames and two adjacent to the conservation area, now replaced by an industrial estate 3 Draft Riversdale & Hedsor Road Conservation Area Appraisal It is also considered that the area has special amount, mainly within the more spacious historic interest which includes the illustration grounds to some of the larger dwellings and of development of scattered agricultural replacing a former boatyard, Andrews’ settlement at the margins of two parishes: the Boatyard. southern half of the conservation area The great majority of these infill schemes remaining entirely agricultural fields until the have been north of the River Wye, with no 1890s. Its evolution from this rural landscape new dwellings in Area A along the Upper into a settlement, expanded and mediated by Hedsor Road and only two small the construction of a railway and railway developments within Area C, Riversdale, in station at Bourne End, and by increased the grounds of houses and without impact on leisure represented by the river and its the overall character of the conservation boating and sailing activity are key elements area. in its special historic interest. This development was focused on the period 1870 The most radical modern development in to 1914 and provides a high degree of Area C is the replacement of Tudor Lea near integrity within its three character areas. the Cookham Bridge by Riverside Manor, a substantial modern house of distinction In summary the area has particular special designed by James Clark of EPR Architects, interest for the illustration of the development London.