12 Main Street, Padbury

Set within the Padbury Conservation Area and alongside a Grade II listed neighbour, 12 Main Street is a two-storey cottage that had outgrown its owners' needs. We were appointed to rethink the house from the inside out: removing a poorly performing rear outbuilding and replacing it with a two-storey side and rear extension that brings a generous kitchen and dining space, a utility room and downstairs WC, and a third double bedroom, all served by a new, better-placed staircase and level floors throughout. A reinstated gabled porch to the street restores a feature seen on the village's historic cottages, while the extension itself is drawn in a quiet vernacular palette of black-stained timber weatherboarding, reclaimed clay roof tiles, salvaged facing brick and flush conservation rooflights, so that the new work sits comfortably beside the old.

Working closely with Buckinghamshire Council, we prepared the design, access and heritage impact statement, including a sun-path study to safeguard neighbouring amenity, and secured planning permission in March 2025, with a separate consent for the porch granted earlier that year. We have since obtained approval of the detailed materials, window and rooflight submissions required under the planning conditions.

Alongside the consents, we have coordinated the structural engineer and party wall surveyor, guided the client through the party wall process with the adjoining cottage, and developed the fully detailed technical package for Building Regulations, resolving the challenge of building against a slender historic party wall while keeping the scheme within the client's budget. The project is now moving towards construction.