The Grange at Bevere

Restoring and extending a farmhouse is a routine assignment, but precisely matching brick work can be more challenging than lining up colours in a Rubic Cube.

Reproducing the eyelids, header and sill bricks around the windows, and shaped brickwork under the eaves, required a craftsman’s eye for detail – and that was before we constructed an extension that owed its outline to a traditional barn and could be reached from the house by an understated walkway.

Brick by brick we built the extension, room by room we opened the interior of the original farmhouse to create an easy flow around the property. The barn harked back to a bygone age in farming, yet contained a sunken sports complex involving a gym, sauna and swimming pool. This subterranean spellbinder required us to dig a hole more than five metres deep through the water table, using specialist water-management engineering to ensure the only wet item inside the building was the pool. Seven years later the client is still dry, and can control every electrical element of the property via a fully-automated, computer-driven system.

Who said farmhouse restoration is only for traditionalists and whimsical romantics?