Design & Access Statement Cottage Extension & Refurbishment, Worton Park, Cassington, Oxfordshire OX29 4SX berrys.uk.com Contents Page no. 1.0 Introduction 2 2.0 The Site 3 2.1 The Cottage Site & Context 5 3.0 The Design Strategy for the extension 7 3.1 The Garage 7 3.2 The Cottage Extension 9 3.3 Policies 9 3.4 The Cottage Refurbishment 11 3.5 The Pre-Application Process 12 4.0 Amenity, Sunlight and Daylight 13 5.0 Sustainability 14 6.0 Access 15 7.0 Ecology 15 8.0 Economy 15 Cottage extension & refurbishment, Worton Park, Cassington, Oxfordshire OX29 4SX PAGE 1 1.0 Introduction This Design & Access Statement (D&A) accompanies a plan- ning application for an extension to a property called the Cot- tage on Worton Park. The Park is owned by Worton Estate and lies just outside the village of Cassington, west Oxfordshire. Worton Park comprises a small business park and a working farm - Worton Farm. There are two grade II listed buildings within the complex: Rectory Farmhouse (nearest to the ap- plication site), and The Old Rectory, slightly further west. The application site does not fall within the setting of any other listed buildings and the Cottage itself is not listed. The site is not within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty or Conserva- tion Area but it is located within the Oxford Green Belt. An aerial view of Worton Park (looking south) Cottage - North-west Elevation Cottage extension & refurbishment, Worton Park, Cassington, Oxfordshire OX29 4SX PAGE 2 2.0 The Site The application site is situated within a small business park located at Worton Farm, which provides a successful mix of attractive rural office buildings for local businesses alongside farm and livery buildings. The farm is organic and registered with the Soil Association and has had a responsible approach to diversification over the years including sensitive barn con- versions, the development of a combined heat and power plant for heating the farm buildings and the establishment of a reed bed system for treating foul effluent prior to discharge into The Cottage location, flanked by the nearby listed buildings (starred) the local water course. The business park is a farm diversifi- cation project that provides a reliable income stream into the business to help balance the variable and less reliable income streams associated with organic farming. The business park is situated within a cluster of buildings rang- ing from very traditional and historic farm buildings to newer extensions and stand-alone barns that have been erected in more recent years as the site has evolved. Two large areas of car parking exist within the business park for employees, oc- cupiers and visitors to the various units. There is a surplus of OS 1900 edition parking within the two on-site car parks. The manor of Worton is referenced in the Domesday Book re- cords as far back as 1086. In the 1500’s Christ Church College Oxford took ownership until such time that it sold it’s land in Worton in the 1950’s. The key historic buildings appeared at Worton in the 1600’s, extending and evolving through the fol- lowing centuries. The historic OS maps show the evolution of the complex of buildings at Worton during the course of the first half of the twentieth century. OS 1911 map revised 1938 Cottage extension & refurbishment, Worton Park, Cassington, Oxfordshire OX29 4SX PAGE 3 Clearly the complex of buildings has a long history as an es- tablished settlement/hamlet. The Cottage can be seen as an established building on the 1900 edition of the OS map. At that time the access track running along the northern bound- ary of the plot on which the cottage sits, defined the original northern extent of the historic complex. Since that time, sev- eral additional buildings have appeared to break the original defined northern extent of the historic complex, including the substantial large scale barns and horse arena further north OS 1960 map which are located on the north side of the track (now the main access road into the park). Extract from aerial view showing development north of the main access road Cottage extension & refurbishment, Worton Park, Cassington, Oxfordshire OX29 4SX PAGE 4 2.1 The Cottage Site & Context The Cottage is a semi-detached property comprising ‘Midways’ to the south and ‘The Cottage’ to the north. The building sits on the south-western boundary of its site adjacent to the ‘Corner Cottage’ plot. Both cottages have generous garden plots to the east. The Cottage is a two-storey structure of half stone and half blockwork construction covered with render. It has a pitched, gabled roof of plain concrete tiles. There is a double-bay ga- rage just to the north of the Cottage along with two timber sheds, all of these out-buildings are in a state of dilapidation with collapsed roofs. The garden comprises gravel hardstand- Location Plan ing immediately to the north, providing access to the garage and sheds, a large area of lawn directly to the east with ruderal vegetation further north to the east of the sheds. Site bound- aries are demarcated by stone walls to the south-west, north- west and north-east with the close-boarded timber fence to the south-east. The Cottage - north-east elevation Cottage extension & refurbishment, Worton Park, Cassington, Oxfordshire OX29 4SX PAGE 5 Internally the cottage comprises 4 bedrooms, two are very small, one of which would struggle to accommodate a single bed due to a large chimney place rising through the room along with one of the internal walls intruding as it dog-legs around the stair. The ground floor comprises a lounge, kitchen/diner, bathroom and separate WC. There is a half-glazed lean to conservatory which shelters the front door - this is a later ad- dition and a small cupboard (accessed externally) housing the boiler. The internal spaces are awkward and do not flow well together. The entrance is semi-concealed within the half-glazed con- servatory, once inside you are led between the bathroom and the WC straight into the kitchen/diner. Crossing this room you have to make a dog-leg turn to access the lounge. The stairs to the first floor are on the other side of the kitchen - so from the lounge you have to traverse back through the kitchen again The Cottage: Ground & First floor plans to reach them. In addition, due partly to the small windows and the utilitarian layout whereby services mostly hog the ex- ternal walls and coupled with the low ceilings, the internal spaces suffer from being dark, oppressive and cut-off from the garden. The long flank wall, adjacent to the Corner Garden plot, suffers from damp due to the higher ground level behind the wall and no effective damp proof measures. As the property deteriorated, further leaks to the roof led Wor- ton Estate to re-home the incumbent tenants into more suit- able accommodation. Existing living room Damp - to the west external wall Cottage extension & refurbishment, Worton Park, Cassington, Oxfordshire OX29 4SX PAGE 6 3.0 The Design Strategy for the extension & garaging Existing Shed Existing oil tank Cottage garden Existing Shed Berrys were approached early in 2020 to look at the potential N O R T H to completely refurbish the Cottage and add an extension to Existing Manhole and tree bring the cottage up to current standards and to incorporate restrict location of proposed new garage to neighbouring property more contemporary living space. There was also a requirement Possible size of new garage building. With existing restrictions in place access to to replace the existing double-bay garage and provide a further the garage and the parking of cars outside of the garage Existing Garage cannot be housed within their double-bay garage for the neighbouring cottage Midways. own garden. Without relocating the existing timber shed space in which to locate a new garage building is IC quite restricted within their own 3.1 The Garage CL63.36 Existing Cottage garden. The determining factors in locating a new double garage to the neighbouring Midways property were: Neighbouring property Mature tree to be retained 1. Very little space within the garden due to a) a mature Oak tree which sat in the middle of the garden Sunpath and b) a large existing timber shed/workshop. Worton Farm Estate - Cottage Refurbishment EXISTING SITE PLAN DRG: WA36060/001 DATE: 17/04/2020 A R C H I T E C T U R E Existing Site Plan outlining some of the constraints 2. The need to revisit the access arrangements to Midways. The current access went around the western boundary of the Simplifying the access to Midways, Corner Cottage plot and cut across the south side of the prop- with an entrance from the north erty to reach the Midways plot. This route separated both access, permitting both the Corner properties from their extended gardens to the south. Cottage & Midways to re-connect with their garden plots to the south . The existing Site Plan and maps illustrate this. Amongst the The ‘X’ indicates the current access Estate management it was felt that, if possible, this should which could be removed. be improved to help mitigate unnecessary traffic movements around the site. Cottage extension & refurbishment, Worton Park, Cassington, Oxfordshire OX29 4SX PAGE 7 The decision to incorporate the two garages into a single build- ing came from observing local precedent - the site next door. The Rectory Farmhouse has a northern courtyard enclosed by a barn along it’s northern boundary. This was originally stabling/ garage space more recently converted into ancillary accommo- dation serving the farmhouse.