Architectural vision
Above: The large glazed gable and roof cupola
Above: The wood burner is a design classic
Above: The dining area has underfloor heating
One snowy January day some 16 years ago, four young architects stood in a slushy concrete yard of an old village farm near Tewkesbury gazing at a collection of Victorian agricultural buildings.
“I’m not sure if anyone else could have seen what we did but the four of us were quite certain we had found our future homes,” says Sara Holyer. “They included my former husband and I and another couple, plus our assorted children; but perhaps only architects could have looked at such a collection and thought – Yes! Especially as they came within the curtilage of the Grade II listed farmhouse next door, so limiting us in what we could do to develop them.”
The buildings comprised the farmhouse itself, a cow byre, two cart sheds, a workshop, a threshing barn and a milking parlour – all rather ramshackle – and while the other couple wanted to buy the farmhouse Sara and her husband wanted the rest. As it was all being sold as one lot the only way they could acquire them was by joining forces.
At the time Sara had two small children Zac (now 21) and Freyja (now 19) and wanted to be close to a town while living in a village.
She and her husband managed to buy their particular assortment of buildings for £50,000 as they were quite uninhabitable. So they stayed on in their old house and began by converting the milking parlour into a two-bedroomed cottage; as this took only two months they then sold their house, moved into the cottage and began the rest of the building work.
What they had to do was repair all the other buildings, link them, then install floors, walls, heating, lighting and water. The threshing barn became the core of the house with their big kitchen-sitting room downstairs and their main bedroom and en suite bathroom above.
The cart shed at one end became their big living room while the cow byre at the other was transformed into their dining room with the two children’s bedrooms and a bathroom above. Beyond that was the second cart shed, now their guest accommodation (comprising bedroom, sitting room and shower) while the workshop became the day room.
Despite their age the buildings were in good order, quite solid and stable although they did have take off all the clay tiles on the barn so they could put in Cellotex-based insulation.
Although the farm buildings were listed they were allowed to install three Velux windows, add a cupola to the roof to let in more light and build on a huge glazed gable on the front of the house to enlarge both the kitchen and their bedroom above.
“I have to say the builders did grumble a bit when we had to hire two cranes to lift the gable into position. They grumbled just as much at the prospect of building an elegant serpentine wall which we designed to go along the road side of our property, made up of old reclaimed brick,” says Sara.
The cow byres had concrete flooring, the cart shed had brick and only the barn had the original York stone floors which the couple wanted to keep. However as they also wanted underfloor heating throughout the ground floor this meant they all had to come up. Where they could they salvaged and relaid the York stone or added more and laid the other rooms with Chinese slate.
“The great thing about underfloor heating is that you don’t need radiators in those rooms so we have them upstairs only,” says Sara. “But we did install a design classic 1970s-style ‘Focus’ wood burner in cast iron in the living room – it’s actually been on the TV programme Hearth and Home with Laurence Llewellyn Bowen.”
Neither the barn nor any of the other buildings had a staircase so they bought a spiral one made of reconstituted stone from Blanc de Bierges.
One great bargain they found in an architectural salvage magazine – 20 Arts & Crafts oak-studded doors were for sale by a very tall man who had found them all far too low.
Two years ago Sara had a new kitchen put in and this is where she spends a lot of time each summer with friends and family bottling her home-grown wine.
“We planted some Pinot Blanc vines some years ago and last year was a record harvest – we made 90 bottles of our own Hither Ham House label (but strictly for friends and family),” she says.
The original farmer would never recognise his concrete farmyard as it is now their beautiful landscaped garden with a lovely rectangular fish pool and surrounding lawns. In the paddock they kept the old duck pond where a rowing boat is moored and where, as children, Zac and Freyja loved to play on it in hot weather.
Twelve years ago Sara decided to retrain as a teacher of special needs children – which she says is very rewarding and she teaches ages from four to 16.
However life has had its ups and downs since that snowy day 16 years ago. One ‘down’ was the flooding last summer which turned Bushley into an island village but luckily did not affect the house.
“For ten days we had no water or electricity and could not get the car out. Drinking water had to be brought in and we had to get food from the little shop at the garage until he ran out! It’s never happened before. But we did have swans making themselves at home in our underwater garden,” says Sara.
“However one ‘up’ was the surprise party they held for Zac when he became world champion single sculls rower in 2006 at Eton. Friends, neighbours and anyone connected to his career (lottery-funded and sponsored by Siemens) gathered to enjoy food, drink and fireworks.
“A major ‘down’ was my marriage breaking down,” says Sara. “But I’m getting married again soon – a major ‘up’ – so a whole new chapter is opening up for me. Sadly we are selling our beautiful Hither Ham House and I am moving down to Devon.”