2011 12 22 Quorn Stables Extension Designed

The garden room proposals for Quorn Hunt Stables have been completed and submitted for Listed Building Consent. The design features a  large garden-room with exposed structure, patent glazing and large areas of glazing.

The proposals have been developed by the client with support from Charnwood's Conservation Officer.

The Stables have beeen much altered over the recent past and the Borough are keen that this should be done both symmpathetically (matching materials and details for structure, eaves etc) and also where possible to show progression (in that the glazing is contemporary and not striving to match the original stable doors and windows).

The works also include some internal alterations, wall removal and new multi-fuel stoves.

johnfowkesarchitects.co.uk

2011 12 16 Merry Christmas

Our Christmas card for 2011 features Christmas motifs overlaid to form the tree. Very 'notonthehighstreet' .

The pot is our website QR code (abbreviated from Quick Response code) is a type matrix barcode first designed for the automotive industry. More recently, the system has become popular outside of the industry due to its fast readability and comparatively large storage capacity. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded can be made up of any kind of data (e.g., binary, alphanumeric symbols).
Created by Toyota the QR code is one of the most popular types of two-dimensional barcodes. It was designed to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed. The technology has seen frequent use in Japan; the United Kingdom is the seventh-largest consumer of QR codes in the world.

It can be photgraphed by any smartphone and will link directly to..................

 ^{johnfowkesarchitects.co.uk}

2011 12 10 Melton Times Architect Article

Seven in running for business boost

Architect John Fowkes outside the Fox Inn which is to be converted into almhouses

Published on Wednesday 7 December 2011

SEVEN businesspeople with real promise have made the shortlist in a competition to win free advertising in the Melton Times and mentoring from the experts.

Among them is architect John Fowkes of Long Clawson who specialises in converting or refurbishing listed buildings. He has just been appointed to turn the Fox Inn in Leicester Street, Melton, into almshouses.

The seven will now go through a selection process to choose three finalists to take part in the Local Business Accelerators scheme in the new year. The eventual winner will be declared at the Melton Times Business Awards in March.
Locally, the initiative is being supported by the Melton Times, Pera, Melton Chamber of Trade and the Melton BID Company.
Nationally the campaign is supported by the Newspaper Society and backed by Dragons’ Den judge Deborah Meadon. About 3,000 firms applied to take part. For more visit www.accelerateme.co.uk

2011 12 10 Workshops finished

The Holy Cross workshops are finally finished. The building is an L-shaped storage unit for the Convent's cars, tractors and maintenace equipemnt. The south range conatins a workshop for their maintenance staff and a mess room for their gardeners and other labourers. The building also contains storage areas for produce, fuel and garen furniture.

The building is an economical structure built in cavity blockwork with Canadian larch cladding and framing. The windows and doors are painted and stained Douglas fir. The building has deep eaves for swifts and housemartins, and dovecotes at each end are for bird access and the roofs have special bat access tiles on all pitches.

johnfowkesarchitects.co.uk

2011 11 16 Almshouses Fox Inn

Confirmation of appointment to commence work at The Fox Inn, Melton Mowbray for theHudson’s and Storer’s Almshouses Trustees. Alternative uses for the Grade II Listed building and its original car park are to be investigated.

The building was constructed in the mid-Eighteenth Century and has been Listed because of its group value with its neighbours, the buildings opposite and those through the carriage arch.

The front range and rear extension are expansive and offer over 5,000ft2 of space on three floors. The building may ultimately be put to a variety of uses but the principal behind the development is that it will provide affordable residential accommodation for the charity.

The original almshouses at the Bede House were established in 1641 and are still in use today.

johnfowkesarchitects.co.uk

2011 11 13 Quorn Hunt Kennels Extension

Confirmation of instruction to commence work on an apartment in the north-west quarter of the former hunt stables and kennels. The building is expansive and is Grade II Listed and is located in the Parish of Seagrave, it was converted from stables in the 1980's.

The project is to provide a new orangery or conservatory extension and appropriate internal alterations  to suit this. An earlier design (by others) had resulted in a refusal of LBC.

johnfowkesarchitects.co.uk

2011 10 26 Agricultural Barn Conversion Morley

Building work is finally progressing on the barn conversion at Morley in Norfolk after several year's delay. The roofs have been stripped and re-tiled or re-slated, and the flint panels and brick quoins are being stabilised. Once the building is structurally sound and water tight, works will commence inside.

johnfowkesarchitects.co.uk

2011 10 23 Old School Extension Designed

Design work completed (almost) for the contemporary extension to Old School.

The new extension will be clad with Western Red Cedar and have a large area of west facing glazing. The stone windows of Old School are replicated in the new bay added to the south elevation of the extension.

The roof light slot includes new openable double glazed skylights and pv electric cells.

johnfowkesarchitects.co.uk

2011 10 01 Urban fox

New ad and marketing campaign.
Lots of nice projects there.

2011 09 06 Old School Hoby

Appointed to re-design the garden approach to the Old School in Hoby a popular building in the village originally built in 1871 as a single classroom.



When the school was converted in the 1990's a Gothic style porch/entrance hall was added. This building is poorly constructed and of no practical use. The new proposals will extend the kitchen into a new garden room.

johnfowkesarchitects.co.uk

2011 09 04 Dower House Completion

Building work was completed to the Grade II Dower House at Highfield's before the Bank Holiday weekend on time and budget. The house, the former Dower House to Bunny Hall, has been renovated and includes six bedroom suites (some with kitchenettes) and visitor meeting rooms for the benefit of guests and those on retreat.  

Externally the house has new windows, guttering and downpipes, brick and stone repairs, pathways and drainage. Internally the services have been fully replaced and the plan re-ordered.

Architects T shirt design

Now this is good.
Architect as chemical symbol.

johnfowkesarchitects.co.uk

2011 08 11 Workshop Progress

Building work is progressing quickly at the Convent where the new workshops are taking shape. The L shaped courtyard building is now clear and the roof trusses were installed this week.
The buildings will be clad in larch and roofed in plain clay tile as the remainder of the site..



Completion is due end of Sept 2011.

johnfowkesarchitects.co.uk

2011 06 08 Manor House Barkston

Village Link ad seems to be working with three new enquiries. Most interesting is to renovate part of and extend to the rear with a new garden room and kitchen. Grade II Listed former Manor House.



.... from Images of England, inside is a possibly a repositioned C14 deep niche with a cusped trefoil head which may have been a piscina; the back wall in which it is set, has a prominent batter on the inner face. This is the site of a monastic grange.

johnfowkesarchitects.co.uk

2011 04 08 Homestead Hoby

We have been appointed to re-design the MBC approved 5000ft2 house to the land adjacent the Grade II Listed Homestead in Hoby. The proposals for the five bedroom house will be re-designed and be more sympathetic to the context and site with oak framing.



The Homestead has an exposed timber frame dating from the 17th Century. The access and drive works have already been implemented in part.

johnfowkesarchitects.co.uk

2011 06 31 Elm House Hickling

We have been appointed to design a new contemporary garden-room across much of the rear elevation of the house and remove a less desirable conservatory. Work also includes alterations to the staircase, bathrooms and kitchen.

The house is Grade II Listed dating from the late Eighteenth Century.

johnfowkesarchitects.co.uk

2011 06 30 Peppers Farm Burton Lazars

Confirmation of appointed to complete the feasibility study for the refurbishment and upgrading of the farm to form new residential accommodation. The house has undergone considerable alteration since it was built in the Eighteenth Century.

The barns and stables form a courtyard on four sides and include all the original stalls, horse boxes, riding equipment and ferramenter.

 

johnfowkesarchitects.co.uk

2011 06 14 Convent Helicopter Flight

Suitably showing nuns waving in the foreground.
Staff cottage to the north, workshop site to the west and Highfields House to the east under scaffold.
Completion Sept 2012


johnfowkesarchitects.co.uk

2011 06 02 Listed Property Owners

New ad in this months magazine.

johnfowkesarchitects.co.uk

2011 05 26 Shelter Scheme - free consultations

We have registered for the Shelter scheme whereby architects consult with home owners to discuss the potential in redesigning or extending their property in return for a donation to Shelter.
We will undertake up to 20 consultations and cover the following postcodes LE14, 15 and 16, PE9, NG31, 32 and 33 across north Leicestershire, Rutland and west Lincolnshire.


If you would like to participate, please contact the office directly or register at
architectinthehouse.org.uk

Consultations take place in July and August.

2011 05 26 Site for Workshops

The ground has been cleared today for new workshop building, the goal posts and string demark the outline of the building for the purposes of cuttting foundations.
For the first time in two months it rains. 20 weeks to go will keep you posted.

 

johnfowkesarchitects.co.uk

2011 05 19 Chapel furnished

Today's site visit and the new Chapel at Holy Cross Convent is now complete and fully furnished. The furniture is their former altar and stalls, and the pews have come from another church locally. The building is the centre piece of the new Convent and has garths to north and south, a residential block to the east and the Convent's cloister corridor passes the west door.



johnfowkesarchitects.co.uk

2011 05 12 Grade 2 Listed Manor

To sell or renovate.
Potenial clients have a lovely Grade 2 Listed Manor requiring lots of repairs and the all too familiar 1960's boiler house extension which needs remodelling.


Lincolnshire is full of these house, small hamlets with beautifully preserved buildings. In the Cotswolds this would be a million pound house. The garden's a delight too.
I believe they should do the work obviously, they have the buildings best interests at heart and it could be further enhaced with the right repairs and improvements

johnfowkesarchitects.co.uk

2011 05 12 Convent completion

My new build Convent is nearing completion and the Sisters have moved in. The picture shows their south-east porch which they use exclusively to access their drying area and garden.



johnfowkesarchitects.co.uk

2011 05 13 Grade 2 Dower House

Dower House, Highfields Farm, Holy Cross Convent. 1724

Two months into the renovation of the Dower House at Highfield's Farm the building work is taking shape. The new window openings are formed with self supporting brick arch and the roof repairs are complete.

Frames are almost fully installed and the large staircase window for stained glass is carefully propped against the scaffold. 

Internally rooms are fully formed and M&E first fix is nearing completion.

The house will be finished before the end of August, when it will become the guest and visitor acommodation.

johnfowkesarchitects.co.uk

2011 05 11 Roof repairs

Here we go, first post. Small works.

Been to look at ongoing repairs to a lovely building hardly known in the area. Sadly it's been bodged in the recent past and the roof could do with re-slating.
Collyweston slate should have been swept or interlaced on the valleys have instead been mitred and soakered. No lay boards and hence rubbish collecting in and rain water penetrations ensue.
The rot you can see is the wall plate. The pitches are covered in moss which is harmful long term.



New lay board, felt and battens should be finished today, slates re-instated and pointed.
The stone has been repaired by St Whitesstones and they have made a first class job, lintels replaced in English oak.

It's a small job but who knows where it will end. I will propose a re-roofing assessment especially if there is more timber to repair and see how that is received.

www.johnfowkesarchitects.co.uk