CRAWLEY VILLAGE DESIGN STATEMENT 2020 Crawley Village Desing Statement 2020 i Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 Village Context 2 3 The Landscape Setting 8 4 Local Character 10 5 Roads and Traffic 13 6 Climate Change and Sustainability 14 7 The Consultation Process 15 Appendix I - Listed Buildings and Scheduled Monuments 16 Appendix II -Map of Crawley 17 RELEVANT DOCUMENTS Crawley Village Design Statement (2001) Winchester District Local Plan Part 1 Joint Core Strategy (2013) Winchester District Local Plan Part 2 Development Management and Site Allocations (2017) National Heritage List for England (2019) Local Design Statements, A Guide to Producing and Reviewing Local Design Statements WEB LINKS Winchester City Council: https://www.winchester.gov.uk/planning-policy Crawley Parish Council: www.crawley-hampshire.org.uk Listed buildings: www.historicengland.org.uk Crawley Village Design Statement 2020 1 1. INTRODUCTION However, smaller day to day adjustments to homes, gardens, open spaces, and paths This Village Design Statement has been and hedges can alter the look and feel of the written and approved by the Parish Council village and accordingly any proposed after consultation with its residents. The adjustment needs to be carefully controlled. Statement describes the parish of Crawley as it has developed and as it is today and it The Statement is addressed to: highlights the qualities valued by its residents. The aims of the Statement are to a) Statutory bodies and public authorities ensure that any changes are based on a b) Planners, developers, architects, considered and informed understanding of designers, engineers, builders the village’s past and present, and to ensure c) Local community groups that Crawley’s special nature will be d) Householders protected and enhanced. This document e) Businesses takes into account the previous Village The Statement is intended to be a practical Design Statement adopted in 2001. tool capable of influencing decisions and Due to its established settlement pattern affecting design and development in the and characteristics and having regard to parish of Crawley. It has been adopted by the restrictive planning/settlement policies Winchester City Council as Supplementary applying to the village as set out in the Planning Guidance and its current Winchester District Local Plan recommendations will be considered when (adopted 2017), the opportunity for planning applications are assessed. In this significant change in the current way it will support the Winchester District arrangement of Crawley is limited. Local Plan as it affects Crawley and it will assist the work of the Parish Council. Crawley Village Design Statement 2020 2 The Statement will be monitored and community living here for at least 1,000 adapted as necessary to take account of years. Evidence also exists of prehistoric future reviews of the District Local Plan and occupation and there is written history dating changes to planning/settlement policies from 643 AD. Crawley features in the specifically affecting the village. Domesday Book. 2. VILLAGE CONTEXT The population according to records has remained around 350/500 which is still true The Geographical and Historic today. Crawley was originally on Church Background land and since the Middle Ages it has supported the appointment of a rector. The extensive Downs of Central Hampshire During the 18th and 19th centuries the down are bounded on the west by the river Test land of arable fields, grazing land, and and on the east by the river Itchen. There wooded areas was tended by yeoman are numerous villages situated along the farmers and it was at this time that the broad tributaries of these rivers, but few evolved in framework for the present-day village the Central Downs area due to lack of settlement was established. This can be access to reliable water, Crawley being an seen in the Ordnance Survey map of 1871. exception. Crawley’s location appears to The village was largely contained within an offer few other natural advantages apart area from St Mary’s Church in the west to from its sheltered position in the folds of the the pond in the east. Downs. Nevertheless, there has been a Crawley Village Design Statement 2020 3 Crawley was not thought a beautiful village. The layout of the village was linear, with all A Hampshire Guide of 1900 refers to it as a development being arranged either side of dilapidated and unattractive village with an the gently curving main road which unpaved road, broken fences, and derelict extended from St Mary’s Church in the barns and cottages. west to the pond in the east, a distance of less than half a mile. At the start of the 20th century Crawley remained a small rural village largely It was at this time that Ernest Philippi, a inhabited by a long-established farming successful businessman, purchased community, with properties ranging from Crawley Court, then the principal residence simple farm buildings and cottages to of the village. By means of further grander residences of landowners and acquisition and development, he instigated yeoman farmers. a major programme of reconstruction and Crawley Village Design Statement 2020 4 improvement through the village which a limited number of larger detached houses resulted in the diverse building styles which on the road to Littleton, and, most recently, a are seen today. This work was carried on by small number of large houses to the north of his son until the early 1930’s when the main Crawley Court. part of the village, including the Crawley Court Estate, then described as ‘one of the Since the 1960’s, modernising farm most noted freehold residential and sporting techniques and mechanisation, together with estates in the Country’, was sold, bringing the reduction of wooded areas and the with it an influx of new residents. creation of large arable fields, have Fortunately, the sale included important dramatically reduced the number of people restrictive covenants concerning future required to work on the land. As a development which proved protective in the consequence, almost all residents of working period immediately following World War II age in the village are now employed outside and assisted in preserving the distinct it. An increasing number of residents choose character of the village. to work from home, either part time or full time. The proximity of the main line railway Since the 1930s, the settlement pattern of station in Winchester, some 4.5 miles the village has changed little. The only distant, enables many residents to commute developments of significance have been a to London. Although over the last 10 years small residential development to the south many young families have moved to the of the village hall, the construction of village there remains a significant proportion several dwellings in Hacks Lane, which were of residents who are retired. originally mostly provided for farm workers, Crawley Village Design Statement 2020 5 Except for Hacks Lane and the Littleton road At the western end of the village and to the where residential Frontage Development east of the church lies Hacks Lane. Sharing conditions apply, the whole of the remaining a junction with the original access to the village street was designated a conservation manor house, Crawley Court, this is where area in April 1972 with the associated post- World War II development has planning controls applying. Several occurred, built originally to provide properties in the village are listed as being of accommodation for agricultural workers. At architectural merit and a schedule of these is the head of the lane, the houses in Cricket included in Appendix I. Close shield views of the recreation ground beyond. Development is then confined to The Village Today the west side of the lane allowing extensive views over open countryside including The linear layout of the village, extending as it does from St Mary’s Church in the west to Crawley Forest, the Ox Drove to the north the pond in the east, remains in place, and Warren Wood and Crawley Down to the east. At the end of the road an extensive although many of the original buildings have network of footpaths and bridleways extend either been replaced or extensively remodelled and others added, providing a to the north of the village. pleasing variety of architectural styles. This Along the original manor house driveway remains the nucleus of the village, being the and off a second access to the west of most densely settled area and with a feeling Crawley Court, various outbuildings of enclosure and shelter which virtually including cottages, stables, barns etc., all prohibits any appreciable views to the originally associated with the manor house, countryside beyond. have been skilfully converted to form large individual residences. Crawley Village Design Statement 2020 6 There are also several other properties, Typically, as with most other small villages, more recently built, in these locations. social and commercial changes have, in relatively recent times, resulted in the Situated off the approach road to the closure of the village post office, shop, western edge of the village on the 13- estate office and school. The remaining hectare site of Crawley Court, lies a commercial activity in the centre of the commercial development built in the early village is ‘The Fox’ gastropub, which was 1970’s initially for the Independent closed for more than three years, but has Broadcasting Authority, then NTL, and now now reopened after being renovated and occupied by Arqiva, a leading UK enlarged. communications infrastructure company. Arqiva employs over 1,000 people and the The Wider Parish site comprises a substantial office block together with restaurant for the staff and The Parish boundaries extend further to flood lit car parks as well as an extensive properties along the roads leading from the array of satellite communication dishes.