Case Study : Charlton Farm - Wraxall for Children's Hospice South West
It is over 4 years since Charlton Farm was identified as the site for the new Children’s Hospice for Bristol, a derelict model farm set into wonderful rolling pasture and woodlands on the side of a gentle valley. Gates were immediately asked by Jill Farwell to provide Project Management for the scheme’s development to completion. Involved in the creation of Little Bridge House and all subsequent improvements, it was considered that Gates were the best choice to lead the team. Listed buildings, green belt, historic parkland; no problem!
Whilst overcoming the planning difficulties and overseeing the design development, Gates produced a project brief with some 20,000 items contained within it. The blueprint used was Little Bridge House, which is itself a wonderful example of great design and function. The brief was developed through consultation with staff, parents and the children who used the facility to create a vision of the ideal. It is this vision that has been created in Charlton Farm.
The design team comprised LHC as Architects, BSW Consulting Engineers looking after the structures, Howard Alan managing the mechanical and electrical installations and Indigo Landscape Architects Ltd the site works and planting. As well as Project Management, Gates provided the cost management as quantity surveyors for the project. This is the team that built Little Bridge, with the exception of Indigo who were brought in to deal with the complicated planning issues arising from the setting of the development.
The Contractor chosen for the development was Cowlin Construction Ltd. They have been absolutely first class and have worked tirelessly to build the vision for Children’s Hospice South West. Throughout the build period it is true to say that all those who have contributed to the build have been excellent, with the work quality of a standard that cannot be faulted.
Work started in April 2004 with the demolition of the old Atcost Barn and the stripping out and salvaging of the remaining structures, which were to be incorporated in the re-build. The intent was to give all of the existing buildings a purpose and renewed life expectancy of many hundreds of years. In the early months we incorporated future provision for the wildlife that abounds on the site. Barn swallows and house martins have returned this summer and we have erected several new boxes for owls and other species. The farmhouse provided a summer roost for bats, we undertook all refurbishment of the roof areas during the winter months to avoid disturbance. New access points and enclosed roof areas have been provide for the building to be re-colonised, we will have bats in the attic again!
Interesting facts:
The buttery has been fully refurbished with a new roof and stained glass. It is considered one of the best examples of a Victorian buttery in the country and was built by Mrs Gilbert, founder of Tyntesfield, in the hope that she and her friends might contract cowpox from dairy products and hence obtain immunity from smallpox!
The farmhouse had suffered from “death watch beetle”. In stripping it out it was found that very little of the upper floor support structure remained. One timber wall stud sized at 50mm x 100mm x 1850mm long weighed less than one kilo when stripped out. At times, it must have been a very noisy building with all that chomping going on!
A new sewer has been laid all the way from Charlton to Portbury, some 1500m in length. The old farm effluent storage tanks were in serious disrepair and removed, huge in size and storing all the waste from farmhouse and cattle barns. A large hand pump, found buried, originally emptied them. It is estimated that some 2 hours of pumping a day would have been required at peak periods!
A “hobbit door” has been created as an access to the lower balcony store. It is designed to resemble that of Bilbo Baggins’ house in ‘Lord of the Rings’ and is set under the grass roof feature.
The buildings were delivered to Children’s Hospice South West at the end of October and it is anticipated that the last elements of the external areas will be completed prior to Christmas. CHSW will use the next few months to ‘learn’ the building, which is designed to be as energy efficient as possible, with computer controlled underfloor heating and other main system controls. New IT installations are currently being installed together with the furnishing and fit-out that will complete the building before the first children arrive. There is no doubt that when that moment arrives, Charlton Farm will be the very best building of its kind.
