NEW BUILD
Clive and Sue’s new barn-style home grew out of their love for characterful farm buildings and rustic materials
HOMEOWNERS Clive Barrett and Sue Prytherch
LOCATION Cambridgeshire
PROJECT New build
HOUSE TYPE Detached 1.5-storey, four-bedroom house
SIZE 375m² house; 55m² garage
BUILD ROUTE Builder, subcontractors, DIY
BUILD TIME 16 months
PLOT COST £450,000
BUILD COST £590,000
VALUE £2 million+
Forty years ago, I bought nine acres of land and some run-down farm buildings, purely as somewhere to keep my daughter’s horse,” says Clive Barrett. “Back then there was absolutely no chance of building in the open countryside, but years later the planning rules changed, which allowed us to convert our Victorian stable block and cowshed into a home.”
For several years Clive and his wife, Sue, lived in their barn conversion, which stands one mile outside the nearest village boundary, and enjoyed the secluded Cambridgeshire setting. Then once Clive had retired, the couple applied to replace an old asbestos warehouse and corrugated storage unit on the land with a new house designed exactly to their requirements.
“The planners set restrictions on both the height and size of the overall footprint, which they said should be smaller than the commercial buildings it replaced,” says Sue. “We chose to work with the same architectural technologist who’d designed our conversion, and he came up with a U-shaped courtyard plan for the new house. We copied elements of our previous barn conversion, too, tweaking and changing some spaces.”
Predominantly single storey, with a mezzanine office area overlooking the open-plan kitchen diner, the four-bedroom property was designed to emulate a series of converted barns and outbuildings, and clad in a variety of materials, including rustic bricks, black stained weatherboarding, slates, peg tiles, and pantiles. “We had quite a battle with the planners to gain approval, but permission was eventually granted,” says Clive.
GETTING STARTED
A local builder was employed, who had tendered for the project and lives just one mile away from the site. Clive was involved in buying some of the materials and oversaw the build, while the couple continued to live next door in their converted barn. “Covid restrictions were in place during the first stages of the demolition and build, but the small team working outdoors could easily comply,” he recalls.
The site was cleared, and standard one-metre-deep concrete strip fou
