Monthly Archives: June 2017

Urgent Help Needed to Resist Penpole Planning Proposal

We’ve received notice that ANOTHER planning application for land adjacent to Penpole Lane, popularly known as the Karakal site, or Fairways. A proposal has come in for 77 shipping containers to be located within the Conservation Area and within the boundary of the Kings Weston historic Registered parkland. The site will be railed off with an 8-foot high mesh security fence with gates, and the containers introduced as part of a self-storage business.

One of the proposed containers and externall treatment

One of the proposed containers and externall treatment

The proposals will form the backdrop to the War Memorial on Shirehampton Road, now a Grade II Listed structure in its own right, and will blight the setting of the park. The Conservation Area appraisal describes this as semi-rural, and the proposed semi-industrial use is unacceptable in principle. We need your help to object to this planning application.

Over the years KWAG has made significant improvements to this, most visible, part of the estate. We removed the ruined tennis court, ensured the undergrowth that had taken over here has been kept in check, and developed a plan with the City Council Parks department for the restoration of the old courts to grassland. Unfortunately our efforts face being undone if permission is granted for the development.

 The type of 2.4metre security fences proposed for the perimeter.

The type of 2.4 metre security fences proposed for the perimeter.

To register your objection go to the Council’s online planning search page and search for application number 17/02259/F (Change of Use of site for self storage units. | Fairways Penpole Lane Bristol BS11 0EA ) The website is here: http://planningonline.bristol.gov.uk/online-applications/search.do?action=simple

You will need to object to the application on planning grounds. There are numerous policies that oppose this sort of development and t     these can include:
– Harm to the character of the Conservation Area
– Harm, and considerable disrespect,  to the setting of the Grade II Listed War Memorial, Grade I Listed Kings Weston House, and the Grade II Registered historic landscape
– Increased traffic from users of the self-storage facility
– increased danger to pedestrians and school children using the lane to get to school
– Loss of the designated wildlife corridor that constitutes the north half of the site

– Ecological and environmental harm

If you are unfamiliar with the site it is on the right in this google street view https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4908349,-2.6659256,3a,75y,294.98h,93.91t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1senrl1FH3X-wNYacqE00GTQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Consistent with our resistance to the intensified development of this site over several years KWAG strongly objects to this proposal. It is entirely counter to the recommendations of the Conservation Management Plan that was designed to protect the park and for which we fought strongly for. We believe the proposals will damage the appeal and character of the historic park for everyone. We’ve pushed back on this one before, and we hope you can support us again. Please, please, help us resist this assault!

The existing site (left), and the proposed distribution of the 77 containers across the site (right). Click the image to view in more detail.

The existing site (left), and the proposed distribution of the 77 containers across the site (right). Click the image to view in more detail.

Forty Years of Resistance: Preserving Kings Weston

This month’s plea for support against ill-conceived planning applications is not the first time the community have come together to save the parkland from development; And back in 1977 it was just such a proposal that was the catalyst in forming our predecessor: The Kingsweston Preservation Society.

1977 model of the proposed police HQ looking south. Kings Weston house middle-right.

1977 model of the proposed police HQ looking south. Kings Weston house middle-right.

During the 1970s the house and Home Park were owned and maintained by Avon and Somerset Constabulary. They ran police training facilities in the house, but, in 1977, formed plans to build a huge new force headquarters within the grounds. Avon County architect Martin Kennington was commissioned to design a large office block which would sit along the north side of the Echo Walk and fill a space more than seven times larger than Vanbrugh’s historic masterpiece.

New houses would be laid out between Vanbrugh’s Brewery and Banqueting House loggia, and the meadows below the house terraced and tarmacked to form extensive car parking. Plans later developed to include a vehicle garage and maintenance depot around the Circle on the edge of Penpole Wood, and a tall new Police Radio transmitter close to the Echo.

1977 plan showing how the site was to be developed (main office block on east of Echo Walk).

1977 plan showing how the site was to be developed (main office block on east of Echo Walk).

Following publication of the plans, and a public meeting in January 1978, many local residents were horrified. They quickly grouped together and formed the Kingsweston Preservation Group who fought a coordinated attack against the proposals. Many of the posters and leaflets produced by the society are collected within the Bristol Record Office (Now Bristol Archives) and offer a hint of the ferocity of opposition.

poster advertising the 1978 public meeting

poster advertising the 1978 public meeting (Bristol Archives)

Eventually, in the face of intense public opposition, and concerns from Avon County Council about the negative impact of the buildings on the historic house, the park, and on traffic the application was refused by town planners.

Police use continued at the house until 1994, but with their ambitious proposals for the grounds thwarted, alternative locations were sought for their new headquarters. Kings Weston was extremely fortunate at the time that the local community rallied behind its park, and understood the importance of the house and environment. The Kingsweston Preservation Society also thrived, and continued work promoting and protecting the estate before finally ebbing out of existence by about 2003.

Opposition poster by the Kingsweston Preservation Society

Opposition poster by the Kingsweston Preservation Society

We are fortunate that assaults on historic buildings, landscapes, and parks, that continued throughout the 70s and 80s, are now far rarer. Since then national and local planning policies have evolved to better protect our built and natural heritage. Although Kings Weston House was Listed in the 1950s the park remained largely unprotected until the creation of the Kings Weston and Westbury on Trym Conservation Area in 1981. 300 acres of the remaining parkland were entered on the ‘Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England’ in 1987, giving it greater protection at a national level, and, most recently, the adoption of the Conservation Management Plan by the City Council in 2014 is also a relevant consideration in planning deliberations.

Without that group of committed locals and supporters forty years ago its difficult to know what condition the estate would be in today. Thanks to their vocal opposition we are able to build on their legacy today, metaphorically rather than literally of course!

 

Home Farm Reveals Hidden History

Sometimes something familiar can still manage to surprise you. This month a recent exploration of some of the former parkland around Lawrence Weston turned up an intriguing new discovery. Some of you will be familiar with the Home Farm buildings on Kings Weston Lane, just below the house. The buildings here once formed the principal farm for the north side of the estate and was farmed and managed directly by the Southwell and Miles families living in Kings Weston House rather than being let to tenant farmers.

The east front of Home Farm onto Kings Weston Lane.

The east front of Home Farm onto Kings Weston Lane.

The main range of buildings survived the post-war development of the parkland as bring converted to a health centre, though many of the outbuildings that once formed the exotic Georgian menagerie were lost.

It is difficult now to establish what purpose the various elements of the building performed. The central portion was, no doubt, the original house, but the north and south wings are unusual.

The rear, west elevation showing the ornamental Gothick facade incorporated on the right.

The rear, west elevation showing the ornamental Gothick facade incorporated on the right.

 

It is in the south wing that the recent ‘discovery’ was made, though at the rear of the building, not the public front. It was this, the west side, that fell within the boundary of the landscaped parkland, and we should, perhaps, not be surprised that it had additional architectural embellishment where it could be seen by the household and visitors.

Within the façade is incorporated three arch-headed openings, designed with symmetry and deliberate decorative intent; a pair of windows with y-shaped timber tracery, and a matching central door accessing a long room. A glance through the windows reveals three further openings of similar form in the north side of this room. Careful inspection of the stonework of the east elevation, to Kings Weston Lane, identified both a series of strong stone quoins on the corner, stretching up only the ground floor height, and a clear break in the stonework.

Detail of the east front showing extent of earlier structure

Detail of the east front showing extent of earlier structure

The implication of these finds is that, when first completed the building was a long single-storey structure with some ornament function. This was later incorporated within the farm house building, with a connecting wing at ground floor level and an entirely new first floor and roof.

So what purpose could this building have performed? Sadly there is no definite documentary evidence that we can turn to answer the question, though there are hints in an estate plan of 1772. At this time it is clear that, as part of the pleasure grounds, a walk was laid out along the eastern edge of the landscaped parkland linking Kings Weston House with the menagerie. This walk is depicted as being heavily planted and meanders downhill where it pauses at the south wind of Home Farm before continuing onwards to the open paddocks of the Menagerie just to the north; it clearly had some interest to visitors to the park to have been included on this route.

Detail of Issac Taylor's 1772 estate plan showing Home Farm.

Detail of Issac Taylor’s 1772 estate plan showing Home Farm.

Already by 1772 the plan shows that the structure had become part of the long range of buildings we see today. Conceivably the pointed arches could date to the 1750s or 1760s when such “Gothick” follies were fashionable; indeed the fanciful tower at Blaise Castle dates from this period. There is the possibility that, when it was drawn in 1772, the buildings had only recently been amalgamated.

Its location, as part of the farm, and ornamental appearance might suggest that this building formed a dairy. Dairies often presented fashionable diversions for the wealthy, and there are notable examples of very ornate structures being attractions at country estates; our most notable local example being at Blaise where a rustic, thatched, dairy was built in the gardens in close proximity to the mansion house at a slightly later period. An alternative possibility is that it was part of the menagerie buildings, though the majority of those seem to be focussed north of the farm house.

The roof form of the building has been altered in recent times, a hipped end once fronted the parkland, and the interiors modified for health centre use, but a more detailed  inspection  of the whole range of Home Farm buildings would be a worthwhile, and potentially fruitful exploration to try and uncover its contribution to the Kings Weston estate.

1947 Aerial photo showing an earlier hipped roof form.

1947 Aerial photo showing an earlier hipped roof form.