Award Winner for Best Retirement Development
WILTON CLOSE
It doesn't look like a farm. More like a Russian Orthodox church or monastery. That is hardly surprising, given that it was a model farm built in 1863 for the Dowager Countess of Pembroke and designed by Samuel Clarke. Who he? One might well ask, for although he was an architect to the Pembroke's Wilton Estate, little is known about him. He is not mentioned by Howard Colvin, Pevsner, H-R Hitchcock or Mark Girouard.
Only English Heritage has a full listing description of the Grade II listed complex of buildings at Bemerton Farm and credits its design to Samuel Clarke, but even then it does not recognise that this was the same "S Clarke" who designed the model farm, manor farmhouse and stables at Little Langford for the Wilton estate around 1858. The magnificent church of St Mary and St Nicholas at Wilton was built in 1841-44 for the Dowager Countess of Pembroke, but its architects are said to be T H Wyatt and David Brandon.
Not much more is known about "the Russian Countess" as Catherine Woronzow (or Ekaterina Vorontsov) was known when she married George Herbert, 11 th Earl of Pembroke, in 1808. Born in 1783 in St Petersburg, Catherine had two children. Her son, Sidney Herbert (later Lord Herbert of Lea), was the Secretary of State for War who started the Crimean War in 1854. His father had died in 1827 and his elder half-brother became the 12 th Earl. His mother, the dowager countess, died in 1856 at 1 Grafton Street, Mayfair. We must be grateful to her - and also to Samuel Clarke - for the magnificent buildings of Bemerton Farm.
Beechcroft Developments, with ALP Architects, have restored and converted these buildings into 16 two- and three-bedroom retirement cottages, and have done it so well that the judges had no hesitation in giving them the award for Best Retirement Development, a category that does not always produce the best in British architecture. The cottages are being sold on 125-year leases at prices from £295,000 to £395,000.
The Russian-inspired buildings (which include a circular stone dovecote) are laid out around a central courtyard, linked to the dairy by a colonnade. The dairy has been converted into a pair of cottages, the original farmhouse has been converted in to four cottages, the gatehouse has been restored as one cottage, and nine largely new cottages have been built around a courtyard and designed in keeping with the dowager countess's beautiful buildings, which are still part of the estate of Henry Herbert, 17 th Earl of Pembroke, surrounded by farmland and a golf course, but only one mile from Salisbury.
Homebuilder: BEECHCROFT DEVELOPMENTS LIMITED
1 Church Lane, Wallingford, Oxfordshire OX10 0DX
Tel 01491 834975
Fax 01491 825433
Website: www.beechcroft.co.uk
Contact: Michelle Manester, Marketing Manager.
Email: michellmanester@beechcroft.co.uk
Architects: ALP ARCHITECTS
15 Gosditch Street, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 2AG
Tel 01285 641146
Fax 01285 641239
Website: www.alparchitects.co.uk
Contact: Richard Ladenburg, Partner.
Email: rl@alparchitects.co.uk
Landscape Architects: WHITTON ASSOCIATES
Queen Anne House, 66 Cricklade Street, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 1JN
Tel 01285 644335
Fax 01285 644336
Website: www.whittonassociates.co.uk
Contact: Peter Smith, Landscape architect.
Email: peter.smith@whittonassociates.co.uk