Conservation, Adaptation and Access improvements
Giles Pritchard RIBA, Senior Historic Buildings Architect for Hampshire County Council and the project architect and designer for Basing House has kindly provided the following summary of the works he and his team have carried out carried out over the past year.
Basing House is designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument and contains a number of Grade II listed buildings. The former Grange Farm site, now called “Basing Grange”, contains a collection of Grade II listed farm buildings along with the Tudor Great Barn, which is listed Grade I and a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
Following a successful grant award from the Heritage Lottery Fund, improvements have been made to Basing House to provide better facilities for visitors to this significant historic site.
The adaptation and alteration of the existing buildings has been carried out with minimal impact on the historic fabric. New interventions are clearly distinct from original elements and a soft touch has applied on all the buildings to ensure that their character and history is respected.
Repairs to the fabric of the buildings have been undertaken using traditional methods and materials such as lime mortars and handmade brick and tile. Repairs to joinery were undertaken in a way that retained as much historic fabric as possible and using scarfing-in repairs, partnering of joists and rafters to provide additional strength, and stitching and re-pointing brickwork wherever necessary.
Basing Grange
An area immediately inside the site boundary, beside the River Loddon, now marks the arrival point for visitors to the site and this is the location for views across to Basing House. A new gravel path has been laid alongside the fishponds and sweeps across the paddock to the north door of the “Little Barn”, adjacent to the Great Barn.
This 18th century barn now houses the visitor centre with reception, gift shop, refreshments and an introductory exhibition. The old corrugated metal roof has been replaced with hand-made tiles, the existing decayed timber doors to the north have been replaced with new oak doors to match the existing, and new glazed doors have been fitted within the existing opening to provide some environmental control to the barn. A matching screen with glazed doors has been fitted to the doors in the south elevation.
The existing modern concrete floor has been removed and replaced with a limecrete slab in a brushed finish and the central area between the main doors has been laid with handmade brick paviors. The existing services have been stripped out and the lighting replaced with a more sympathetic design, with fittings located at high level along the eaves line. A full fire detection and intruder alarm system has been fitted, radio controlled to avoid additional cabling.
The old stable block has been adapted to create a new learning centre, new public toilets and a small plant room. The internal modern block work partitions have been demolished to open up the space for the learning centre. The existing concrete floor has been removed and replaced with a limecrete slab incorporating under floor heating coils and finished with an oak boarded floor on battens. The ceiling has been lined with insulated plasterboard, leaving the principal trusses and purlins exposed.
The works to the Great Barn have been minimal so that the vast open space is retained. Some minor repair work has been done to the 16th century roof structure involving some scarfing-in timber repairs in new oak and the introduction of some stainless steel bolts and plates to strengthen joints where necessary.
The existing chalk floor has been repaired by scraping off the built-up layer of mud and muck and consolidating the remaining chalk by lightly scarifying the surface and topped using rammed chalk with a hydraulic lime binder. The remains of the brick footings that once supported the threshing floor between the western doors have been carefully repaired and the spaces between them infilled with limecrete incorporating the large flint rubble recovered from these areas.
To the east end of the building, the modern concrete floor has been removed and replaced with rammed chalk floor. The remains of a brick threshing floor between the eastern doors have been incorporated in its reinstatement using new hand-made bricks. The existing cement render to the walls at low level has been left as its removal would cause damage to the brickwork.
Garrison Gate, Basing House remains and the museum
Access for the disabled has been improved on the Basing House site. The tarmac approach path leading through Garrison Gate has been re-laid and a metal handrail provided up to the former canal bridge. The toilet block has been comprehensively re-planned and refurbished to include an improved accessible WC.
A new accessible WC has been provided on the lower ground floor level of the museum in space formerly used as a storeroom. The existing doorway to the exhibition, a modern doorway cut into the 1970’s extension to the Lodge building, has been widened to provide the necessary clear opening. The external concrete ramp has been replaced with an inclined gravel path re-graded with a gradient of 1:21. The ramp is independent of the adjacent historic wall.
Extensive repairs and consolidation of the brickwork to the ruins have been undertaken. The Tudor Orchard Wall, a significant retaining wall of two distinct periods of build, has been carefully repaired. This has involved tying back of the later brick facing and rebuilding sections that had previously collapsed. A new brick coping has been rebuilt based on evidence of the remaining wall top, to provide protection from water ingress to the wall below.
www.basinghouse.org.uk
