See how surveys, heritage planning and a bespoke timber orangery helped restore a Grade II listed Georgian home near Boston, Lincolnshire<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\ufeff\u201cWe like a project, and we were keen to roll our sleeves up,\u201d said Colin Clarke and Clayton Jones. Careful what you wish for! Keen to relocate to the country having worked in London for a number of years, they found West Skirbeck Hall, a Grade II listed property created in the late 1790s, set within 11 acres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The property was formerly home to Henry Clarke and to William Garfit, who owned several of Boston\u2019s six private banks, including Capital & Counties, which eventually merged with Lloyds, with Garfit serving as the company\u2019s Chairman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The couple were by no means naive to the degree of work the property necessitated, but only when you begin work and start to peel back the layers of past refurbishments does the way forward become clear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s all worth it in the end, of course, but restoring a beautiful home such as West Skirbeck Hall is not an undertaking for the faint-hearted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a Grade II listed building, the property demanded that any work should be a faithful reflection of its provenance, while also satisfying Lincolnshire\u2019s conservation officers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fortunately, Colin and Clayton were not alone. They enlisted Austin John, architectural designers and heritage consultants, who have over 20 years of experience working in all aspects of design and build, including conservation, planning, and building control. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their job, says Austin John\u2019s director, Nicola Chamberlain, is to spot potential problems before they arise and to help clients navigate the process of working with heritage buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The couple initially sought Austin John\u2019s input on replacing the building\u2019s windows. This meant creating a window schedule proposal with detailed designs for bespoke replacements. However, the company soon became more involved with the whole renovation and produced a Heritage Statement with up-to-date, accurate measurement surveys, plans, elevation drawings and a photographic study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The team at Austin John were instructed by Colin and Clayton to design a bespoke timber orangery. The final outstanding design was successfully granted planning permission before being constructed and installed by their highly trusted team of local craftsmen. Serving as the main point of contact between the client, authorities and contractors, Austin John also offers project management services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The orangery was completed in June 2026, and the couple are thrilled with it, both as a space in which to entertain and for the value it adds to the property\u2019s architecture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With four members in the team and completing over 300 projects a year, Austin John offers the technical expertise, creativity and breadth of knowledge to turn a heritage project, no matter how challenging, into a success. That makes them an essential contact for anyone undertaking work on a heritage building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For a free, no-obligation discussion about your heritage building project, call Austin John on 01775 760246 or see www.architecturaldesignlincolnshire.co.uk<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" See how surveys, heritage planning and a bespoke timber orangery helped restore a Grade II listed Georgian home near Boston,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4549,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[880,879,878],"class_list":["post-4548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-georgian-house-restoration","tag-heritage-architect-boston-lincolnshire","tag-listed-building-restoration-lincolnshire"],"acf":false,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4548"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4550,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4548\/revisions\/4550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/lincolnshire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}