MARLBOROUGH TOWN CHARACTER STUDY August 2020 Prepared by Sage Gray Architects Ltd for Marlborough Town Council to publish in the evidence base of the Marlborough Area Neighbourhood Plan MARLBOROUGH TOWN CHARACTER STUDY AUGUST 2020 CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND 3 2. THE CONSERVATION AREA AND ITS SETTING 5 3. AREAS OF SPECIAL QUALITY 16 4. THE REST OF THE TOWN 24 5. POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS 26 MAPS 32 APPENDIX A: LOCAL HERITAGE ASSETS APPENDIX B: KEY PASSAGEWAYS [Front Cover Photo courtesy of Marlborough Town Council, 2019] Marlborough Town Character Study (August 2020) 2 1. INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND 1.1 The purpose of this report is to provide evidence to support a number of policy proposals for Marlborough town in the Marlborough Area Neighbourhood Plan (MANP) being jointly prepared by Marlborough Town Council and the adjoining Parish Councils of Mildenhall and Savernake. Specifically, it supplements the information contained in the Marlborough Conservation Area Statement adopted as supplementary planning guidance by the local planning authority, Kennet District Council, now Wiltshire Council (WC), in June 2003. 1.2 The Character Study is intended to update and supplement the Statement, rather than replace it. The Conservation Area boundary has remained the same, but there have been some changes within it since 2003. Whilst the Statement identifies some attributes that are considered relevant to conservation and design policy now, there are other parts of the town that warrant attention in framing design policy. 1.3 For example, the former Marlborough Area of Special Quality (of Policy HH11 in the adopted Kennet Local Plan at Cross Lane/Cardigan Road; see Map A below and the larger scale map in Appendix C) was replaced by the Wiltshire Core Strategy Policy CP57, which is a generic design policy. There may be other areas of the town that warrant a similar policy response and/or that may comprise pockets of distinct character or local heritage assets. Marlborough Town Character Study (August 2020) 3 Fig 1. Map A: Kennet Local Plan (2004) - Proposals Map (Marlborough Central Area) 1.4 The Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group, acting on behalf of the Town and Parish Councils, proposes to include design policies relating to the town and the villages of Mildenhall and Manton in the MANP, as well as other site-specific policies. For the villages, it has been able to extract from their respective Conservation Area Statements (of 2004 and 2003 respectively) the relevant content on their essential character to inform those policies. 1.5 The town covers a much larger area, including its extensive and well-renowned town centre Conservation Area, and this has required considerably more analysis, both of the 2003 Statement and of the rest of the towns area. Specialist heritage consultants, Sage Gray Architects Ltd, were appointed to assist in this work, which has also included engagement with Wiltshire Council. A walkaround of the town centre with members of the Steering Group and a supplementary site visit of the rest of the town, were undertaken in December 2019 and January 2020. 1.6 This report firstly contains the summary analysis of the Conservation Area; of three Areas of Special Quality; and of the rest of the town, including the setting of the Conservation Area. It then concludes with policy recommendations for the MANP, including a review of the key heritage implications of the other proposed site-specific policies in the MANP. The extent of the Townscape Study was defined as the area within the boundary of the Marlborough Settlement Framework Boundary as identified by the adopted Wiltshire Core Strategy Inset Map 7. 1.7 The report makes reference in its methodology to a number of publications by Historic England. These include Historic England Advice Note 1: Conservation Area Designation, Appraisal and Management; Historic England, Local Heritage Listing Advice Note 7; Conservation Principles Policies and Guidance for the Sustainable Management of the Historic Environment, Historic England, published in April 2008. 2. THE CONSERVATION AREA AND ITS SETTING Historic Development and Context 2.1 The Marlborough Conservation Area was first designated, and a Statement produced, by Wiltshire County Council in 1971. The then Department of the Environment recognised Marlborough as an Outstanding Conservation Area in 1976. 2.2 The Statement and the Conservation Area boundary were amended by Kennet District Council in 1992 and the current Marlborough Conservation Area Statement was published in June 2003. This is an extremely comprehensive document that provides a descriptive analysis of the history of the development of the town of Marlborough and detailed description of those heritage assets, both listed and unlisted, which together contribute to its special architectural and historic interest. 2.3 The Marlborough Conservation Area is centred upon the historic high street of the town which runs in a south west – north east orientation following the valley of the River Kennet which follows a serpentine course to its south. 2.4 The Area boundary was drawn to encompass the Castle mound and Marlborough College at its south western extent and follows the southern bank of the River Kennet including Coopers Meadow to its south. The northern boundary was drawn to principally follow the line of the rear curtilage boundaries of the buildings fronting the High Street. It widens to the north to encompass the historic extents of Kingsbury Street and Herd Street on the northern slopes of the valley before tapering to follow the rear curtilage boundaries of St Martins at the far eastern extent. The Area boundary then follows the historic settlement development southwards along Barn Street and London Road where it joins with the southern boundary at the London Road bridge and historic ford crossing. 2.5 The special character of Marlborough and the Conservation Area is implicitly linked with its geographical position and the influence that the topography has had on its historic development and its distinctive sense of place. It lies in the valley of the River Kennet, south of the Marlborough Downs and north west of Savernake Forest bounded to the north east by a valley slope of the River Og. 2.6 The town is enfolded by chalk downland with beech tree groups in the north west and south east. The historic town centre is bounded at each end by flat riverside meadows that to the north west extend up the dry valley of Barton Farm. To the north west Marlborough College playing fields slope gradually up with the Common while on the south east side the steep slopes above the town are Granham Hill, Postern Hill and Forest Hill. 2.7 A significant Neolithic population must have existed within the environs of the present town to enable the construction of Marlborough Mound (c 2400BC) next to the River Kennet and evidence of contemporary settlement activity was recently discovered during the rebuild of Marlborough St Mary’s CE Primary School off Isbury Road. Continuity of settlement in the area through the Bronze Age is evident in the round barrows that survive on the Common, the Savernake plateaux and at Manton. By the Iron Age, the focus had moved to Forest Hill where an oppidum (‘proto-town’) operated probably as a regional capital until the Roman invasion. Updated research based on archaeological investigations since the 2003 Statement has identified that the east-west roman road from Aquae Sulis (Bath) to the Roman town and fort at Cunetio (Minal), having forded the Kennet at Fyfield, maintained a route to the south of the river which can now be followed along Manton High Street, Preshute Lane, Treacle Bolley, George Lane, London Road and Elcot Lane (sources: Toller, H. 2013 ”The Roman road between Wickham (Speen), Berkshire and Fyfield, Wiltshire (Margary 53)”; Devizes: Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine Volume 106, pp 52-56). Marlborough Town Character Study (August 2020) 6 2.8 An ancient south-north route that crossed the Kennet at Culbridge (near the present London Road Bridge) and which followed The Parade, Perrins Lane and Kingsbury Street most likely influenced the establishment during the Saxon period of a settlement around The Green. The Normans constructed their motte and later castle on the Neolithic Mound with their bailey extending eastwards towards the Saxon town. Norman and Saxon settlements were later connected by a wide curving High Street with tenement plots to the north and south. Fig. 2 Map B: Conservation Area Statement (2003) – Conservation Area Boundary Marlborough Town Character Study (August 2020) 7 Streetscape 2.9 The Area has a distinctive and visually rich historic character and appearance, which for the purposes of this report have been defined by two character areas. These character areas can be further sub divided into sub areas defining detailed characteristics of building heights, plot widths, uses and architectural form, however, these elements are well covered by the 2003 Statement and this report has therefore focused on broader conservation and design themes. 2.10 The two areas identified, directly reflect the historic origins of the two early settlement patterns. The first of these is the tight knit streetscape of the commercial and residential town focusing on High Street and areas to the north along Kingsbury Street and Herd Street, east along St Martins and south including The Parade and London Road. The second is the area focused around Marlborough College and the Marlborough Mound, which is a substantial area defined by four cumulative, but legible phases of formal development in contrast to the predominant vernacular morphological development of the settlement to the east, and the continuity of private ownership. Fig. 3 View of High Street from St. Peter’s and St Paul’s Church (Photo courtesy of Marlborough Town Council, 2019) Marlborough Town Character Study (August 2020) 8 Fig.
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