REAL PROJECT SPIRIT OF SELF-BUILD
When builder Roxy Woodfield constructed her oak-framed cottage, she called on her years of experience working on site with her father
WORK ON THE EDGE
Roxy installed the unusual chestnut fence and planted a native hedge around her plot, working with her father to build the detached timber-framed garage —clad in larch boarding to match the house. Across the whole site, landscaping has been implemented to support biodiversity with hedges, wide grass verges, new trees and wildflowers. If the barn isn’t needed, it can be dismantled piece by piece and reused.
timeline
Plans submitted OCTOBER 2016
HOMEOWNER Roxy Woodfield PROFESSION Builder PROJECT New build
HOUSE TYPE Detached two-storey, two-bedroom house
SIZE 112m2 LOCATION Herefordshire
BUILD ROUTE Oak framing company, DIY and subcontractors
BUILD TIME Ten months PLOT COST Gifted —value £125,000 BUILD COST £200,000
Planning permission granted AUG 2017
CURRENT VALUE £410,000+
WORDS Debbie Jeffery PHOTOGRAPHY Jeremy Phillips
Work started on site MAY 2021
Shell of house finished MARCH 2022
Fit out APRIL 2022
House completed JUNE 2022
Roxy Woodfield was brought up on building sites, working alongside her father during school holidays, so it was only natural she would eventually join the family business and become a builder herself. “When my parents gained planning permission for a small development of oak-framed houses on their land, I was over the moon to be gifted one of the plots, on which I could build my own home,” she says.
Roxy’s parents appointed local oak framing specialists Border Oak and the bespoke oak frame building company designed the houses and applied for planning consent on the couple’s Herefordshire grazing field, located on the edge of a village overlooking open countryside and allocated for development in the Neighbourhood Plan.
SETTING THE SCENE
All nine houses on the small, award-winning development were designed to complement one another as well as the existing listed farmhouse next door. “We were delighted to be trusted to create something different, mixing traditional and contemporary vernacular references, providing awide range of styles, sizes and contract options, with sustainability and biodiversity woven throughout,” says Border Oak creative director, Merry Albright, whose father originally started the company in 1980. “Our oak frames are beautiful because they’re made by hand. Ilove walking around the workshop and seeing them being crafted.”
Roxy’s parents kindly gifted alarge piece of ground to the village for their c
