Extension at Cross Cottage, Barford St Martin

Cross Cottage is a Grade II listed house of c.1800, in Chilmark stone, prominently situated across from Barford St Martin church, on the road out towards Dinton. The creation of an extension to the building, on an unoccupied site between it and the road, had clearly been seen as acceptable by the planners because of evidence of a previous ancillary building on that site. The judges needed to decide whether the new extension took proper advantage of the opportunity offered, coming across as a natural filling-in of the space, subservient to the main house and respecting its character. They decided that it met all these requirements. While the walling was mainly in local greensand, rather than Chilmark stone, this was logical enough given that the previous building appeared to have been a greensand one, and did not create any visual jarring. At the back of the house, where the connection of the extension to it had the most impact, the use of a more contemporary material, aluminium, for door and windows, worked well. The judges were particularly impressed by the interior, which had a well-lit unified kitchen and living space downstairs, and then a mezzanine loft occupying half the available space upstairs, accessed by an attractively detailed metal staircase. The combination of a clearly very valuable addition to the house’s interior, with a well-judged exterior which was entirely appropriate to the building’s listed status, made the decision to give an award an easy one.

Architect: John Comparelli, Tisbury

Photo: Lance McNulty