LE VAL BACHELIER
Grade 2 listed farmhouse
The purpose of this document is to outline desired architectural changes, aims and aspirations, to inform a brief to create a master-plan for the entire property, which can then be subsequently broken down into a series of planning applications.
A vision for Le Val Bachelier farmstead is to shape it into a co-living, co-working farmstead, for adults and children, where every unit is self-contained, with the potential for a shared space, and shared market forest garden.
Interventions intend to merge outside space with inside amenities and living, using the Valley Topography to create sheltered spaces, where the architecture draws you out into the landscape and provides an intermediary zone to create sheltered conditions for plants or young trees, or shaded/sheltered areas for cooking, eating or working outside, providing trellises and greenhouse characteristics wherever possible and to maximise on height and daylight (qualities, currently lacking).
A vision for the land is to carefully plant a forest garden with a range of fruit and nut trees, and edible perennial plants, whilst allowing it to retain its function as a wild habitat for local plant life, amphibians, birds, insects and small mammals and bats. There is plenty of room to have a market garden positioned close to the house. We are lacking any greenhouse space to shelter plants and saplings, also due to the geography on the North Coast of the Island, wind can be extreme, so shelterbelts and windbreaks are essential for the success of plants grown on the land, plus irrigation to make use of the water supply in the draught season.
Wildlife surveys will be completed Summer 2021. The aim is to tread very gently on the land, as it is clear that, due to the fact agriculture hasn’t been conducted on a portion of the land, the valley is already a nature reserve of sorts, with diversity and fertility, from the abundance of water, deep undisturbed soil and native plants.
BUILDINGS
The house is currently split into the Main House and Cottage/Boulangerie.
The North lying L shaped buildings are called Honey and the Freestanding garage and the southern cowshed we call Milk.
Attached to the West of main house stands a room we call the Barn and attached to that on the north side we call the Lean-to Garage.
MAIN HOUSE
The main house is split into two square bedrooms above two square living rooms with a spacious entrance and staircase. These share one small bathroom on the first floor, on the North of the house a curved extension makes two small rooms accessed from a half landing on the staircase and below a kitchen and utility room with wc.
The access to the kitchen and utility is under the staircase and is dangerously low and the passageway from under the stairs to the back door is unnecessarily tight and could be easily improved.
From the kitchen there is access to a modern conservatory, which we use as a dining room, the conservatory has a wonderful view down the valley. The kitchen and conservatory are where we spend most of our time, even though they are the smallest rooms in the house.
Behind the conservatory, is a lean-to, this is one room, accessed from a door off the south garden patio. This was previously used as a bedsit. It is now used for garden tools, and also all the electric boards and metres. This is where the main electricity cable enters the house.
Given the listing on the house, I do not propose any changes to the layout of the house, the rooms are divided by listed wood panelling, and I have been told that we wouldn’t get permission for moving the kitchen to a living room.
What the house lacks is a spacious kitchen and dining room. Given the views down the valley, and access from the garden, I feel the best location for the house kitchen, is to work with the lean-to, to potentially extend east to have a wider view into the valley, and extend the conservatory to create a kitchen dining room. Retain an access from the front patio, take the ceiling out, so there would be skylights and North and South windows, and create an internal access through the cupboard either side of the fireplace from the eastern living room, where the wall is narrower.
In this scenario the current kitchen could become a butler’s pantry, (the boiler is already in this room), and the utility room would become a downstairs shower room and toilet (though currently ceiling height is quite low, and I am not sure how a shower could work). We have discussed dropping the floor in the front hall to give some head room under the stairs. This could go as low as the kitchen floor level which would then create head room for a shower.
Another justification to make changes to the Lean To extension on the East of the house and create the kitchen here is because this side of the build needs attention, there has been some subsidence and large cracks have appeared. Any alterations would need to be sympathetic to the listing.
The curve of the building and small courtyard between the 3 aspects of the building gets morning sun, so I think we do not want to extend the conservatory North, as it would block that light. It would be a shame to darken a very pleasant seating area where we enjoy the morning sun.
Considerations:
Creating a new bathroom as an en-suite in the first-floor back curve, as a guest suite. So there would be a bedroom/bathroom suite on the mid level floor. The question to answer here is whether to keep an access way through to the cottage. One way to potentially do it is to create a cupboard where the door way goes through, so it looks and feels closed off, but could be opened in the future. There are already hot and cold water pipes running through this room and a drain below in the bathroom downstairs.
The bedroom ceilings are low, so we could go into the roof space to add height, or create half vaulted with half mezzanine for sleeping and storage.
Alternatively, the loft space could be converted to add an additional bedroom and bathroom and continue a staircase up. It would be nice to make a large master suite in the `house. as the two main bedrooms share a bathroom. I am not sure if it works with the beam that runs across the loft. I have been told that dormer windows wouldn’t be acceptable from a heritage perspective, but I have since seen examples on listed farm houses, so there could be evidence to support a case. There is no insulation in the roof or felt under the slates.
The front Porch is a modern addition, and planning would look favourably on it being replaced or removed, also many of the windows have been replaced with PVC double glazed windows, replacing these with wooden framed windows would also be looked upon favourably. Also, currently the front patio is higher than the front living, rooms and we can see damp has risen up the front of the house, but this seems currently under control. The façade of the property feels like it has the potential to be charming with the addition of creepers, a delicate porch or veranda, wooden windows, and French farmhouse shutters. The front patio is another summer dining place, but bears full sun, so requires shade, shade from vines could be exquisite.
I have also considered creating a parking space to the South of the front garden and entering the property through the front Garden.
COTTAGE BOULANGERIE AND BARN
The oldest part of the building, which we call the cottage is three single room stories, and a modern kitchen extension and a bathroom extension. The kitchen extension links to the upstairs of the Boulangerie. The current layout is, living room on the middle floor, and a bedroom on the bottom and top floor. We have a shower room and laundry in the small slice between the Kitchen and the upstairs of the boulangerie which is another bedroom. It is possible to make the Boulangerie a totally self-contained unit, by closing the door between the bathroom and the kitchen, and the downstairs of the Boulangerie becomes a kitchen/living.
We have added a bath to the upstairs bedroom in the cottage.
The door way from the living room through to the kitchen extension was initially very low, and we have raised this door way after receiving planning permission to do so.
Issues:
The staircase to each level is exceptionally steep.
The extensions are ugly.
NB. Maybe foolishly, we have reroofed and refurbished the kitchen in the ugly extension, so it would be painful to tear apart so soon, but I guess this should not stand in the way of a truly radical plan.
The extension bathroom is problematic as is opens onto the living room, is leaking, and the ugliest bathroom in the history of modern bathrooms.
Considerations:
The obvious and easy intervention would be to replace and extend the polycarbonate porch to become a dining room/greenhouse to the full extent of the patio.
The upstairs and downstairs bedrooms would benefit from en-suite wc/shower especially if the extension bathroom is to be lost. Upstairs, there’s an opportunity to access the loft in the barn or house, to provide room for a shower room.
The downstairs bedroom has previously been used as a bedsit, so we could keep this, so this could be a self contained accommodation, because it has an exterior door.
Removing the bathroom would create an opportunity to make a new entrance to the cottage into the lounge, it would also be an opportunity to cover some or all of the back yard to join the barn to the cottage.
And create another covered space outside.
The barn is currently the most generous of rooms in the whole farm complex. The vision for this room is that it could be a self contained unit, with a cooking facilities, mezzanine sleeping areas, ideally divided into tw0 sleeping areas, the lean-to could also be integrated. We would like to retain flexibility for this space, keeping the volume of space as large as possible so the room could be used as an events venue for dinners, a classroom, or a work studio, but also could be living accommodation for two people. Connecting this space to the cottage feels the best option, as it ‘almost’ on the same level as the living space of the cottage.
The alternative is that the back yard is retained for parking purposes, in this instance there is still an opportunity to improve this area, to give it charm and make it welcoming.
The pigsties which are listed, could be altered (roof raised) to create a shower room or storage? I have seen an example of this at a Grade 1 listed property.
HONEY - NORTH BARN
We have had feedback from a pre-planning application that Honey would potentially get planning permission to become a new dwelling, and the buildings fall out of the listed parts of the property. The property sits in a very auspicious position as a sun trap, with a good views across the valley. The buildings sit nestled into a granite hill. Facing away from the neighbours.
The free standing garage could be removed, and additional floor space could be added to the property, however the freestanding garage, does have an excellent view, and also acts as a windbreak to the yard.
We have done remedial works to the barns, reinforcing the walls, repairing the top of the walls and replacing the roof of the granite barn, with the inclusion of two velux windows on the South side. We have the new pantiles and windows to install, but we have paused work, in case we make changes.
Again the aim would be to keep spaces as generous as possible, open-plan, and practical, and creating a sense of fluidity between inside and outside, with the need to create shade as the sun moves.
We have done the initial works to install an independent power supply to the property. But we would need to install a pumping station, and pump out to the mains drains, as the property is on a soak away which is no longer a legal option. We would use the opportunity for the house to go onto the mains drains also.
Number of bedrooms, would depend on if we were able to add an additional story onto the Southern part of the L shape, or extend in any direction. But it is worth noting that we are in a Green Zone, so development will be restricted.
MILK - SOUTH BARN
We have been told that the close proximity to the house, and a lack of a garden (the field adjacent is under agricultural use), would work against an application to become an additional dwelling, even though it would make a fabulous conversion.
Considerations:
Create an open plan studio on the first floor, with the addition of large North facing windows, with a small kitchen facilities, and shower room this could be a work space or guest accommodation, all auxiliary to the house.
Downstairs have a flexible workshop, currently it in two, with a wood shop using the door facing the gravel drive, and the other side, we have a room which was used as campers mess in the summer, and now is inhabited by the chickens. The thoughts would to keep this floor flexible so we can build in stables if we need, or an art studio. It would benefit from a sink.
AMENITIES
We have accessed mains water and stopped using the Well in the front garden. The water is on one account and one meter positioned on Rue De Plemont, so our water pipes run through the fields. We are aiming to run sewage pipes up the mains drain on a La Rue du Val Bachelier. I attach maps of the pipes, and position where we think a pumping station should sit. To obtain permission for changes that will add bedrooms we will have to join to the mains drains.
We do not have any oil or gas at the property, so currently water is heated with an electric boiler, and rooms are heated independently with electric heaters. Given that we also use an electric car, there could be an argument to install our own solar panels, or other alternative electricity generation, but currently, all is taken from Jersey Electricity Co.
There is one working open fireplace in the Eastern living room on the Main house. We would like to install some wood burning stoves in living rooms throughout the property where there is a chimney, with wood storage close to these. We also a like stove which include an oven
ACCESS, PARKING AND YARDS
We have a shared drive with the neighbours and all parking is awkward to turn and get out, I have been considering different options such as putting some parking in the small field South of the house garden or making a loop in that field so cars can visit and leave without reversing. I am not sure if permissions to make a formal drive would be obtainable. Improving safety for children so they can’t run into the lane is worth considering, plus, creating privacy from the road, the neighbours have a vehicle storage facility for an asphalt company so twice a day we get a lot of traffic on the shared drive.
The back yard is unlevel, and a mix of unsteady surfaces, a new surface in keeping with the farm would be desirable, plus the gravel drive where we currently park cars for the house, receives the last of the evening sun, and could also make a nice area for plants and dining.
ORDER OF PRIORITY
1. Masterplan - Because of tight restrictions in the green zone, an overall understanding of changes of use, and changes to footprint of the whole site would be valuable to move forward with planning on any part.
2. Honey - this is a priority, as it sits in limbo, the neighbour has to look at it. Also this project financially unlocks everything.
3. Cottage/Barn
4. Milk (need to discuss bats)
5. House/kitchen,loft,new bathrooms. (however some small changes would be quick to do, and improve the house sooner rather than later).
MATERIALS
I have an obsession with cork as a sustainable building supply and have used the expanded cork as an insulation and tiles as flooring in the house. I am also fond of steel windows which have been used in the island in some farm buildings. I also like delicate glazing bars, and small window panes, as is found in traditional greenhouses in the island. Granite is the dominant material in the island being one of the only locally sourced building materials.
ADJECTIVES
Romantic, biodiverse, fertile, fullness, shaded, secret garden, craft, traditional farm house, Jersey French, delicate, beautiful, workshop, catering, communal eating, library, open plan, practical and functional.
Grounded in the past, living to the full in the present, taking responsibility for the future.