Need a Report describing how significant your building is ? Normally this is required for any Listed Building Consent application, however if it is in a conservation area, close proximity to an ancient monument, or other building/place of significance you maybe required to provide one too. It may also raise one or two surprises - Antiques Roadshow for buildings!
'The Wantage' in Kenilworth turned out to have a surprising history (see Blog on Historic Building and Garden Reports).
Built at the turn of the century by the daughter of Aaron Dennison who unfortunately died before is house came to fruition it is at the junction between old world and the very modern. Dennison was a pioneer in every sense and was the father of precision manufacturing making on a large scale, inventing the Dennison Standard Gauge and then the American System of Watch Manufacturing.
The irony is that his house, The Wantage, is a superb example of Arts and Crafts, both the house and the Garden. Large scale manufacturing of course spelt the slow end of the Arts and Crafts Movement as it competed directly with cottage industries.
Herbert Buckland the architect, and long since forgotten, was at the time very well known for his seminal Arts and Crafts houses and went on to produce some famous educational buildings such as St Hugh's College Oxford.
Buckland's house in Edgbaston is Grade I listed, and the Wantage is infinetly better both inside and out, both the building and its gardens - attributed to Gertrude Jekyll. The Wantage is only Grade II listed - and the listing mentions nothing of significance, rather sad really for a hidden gem.
Commentaires