Rainbow Wood Farm Cottage, Claverton Down Road, Claverton Down, Bath
Rainbow Wood Farm Cottage forms one of a pair of Grade II early 18th century cottages situated within the Bath World Heritage Site and the indicative landscape setting of the Bath conservation area. The cottages are also located within the Green Belt and Cotswolds AONB. The other half of the pair of cottages is Rosary Cottage, which is the subject of a separate application (see 22/00985/LBA) although BPT will address both applications in the same consultation response. The cottages likely formed one original detached dwelling and was subsequently subdivided as part of a series of historic alterations and extensions, most significantly the extension of the western gable end. The cottages form part of an interconnected group of Grade II buildings including the 1700s Rainbow Wood Farmhouse and the separately-Grade II late 17th century listed barn, dairy, and courtyard to the east. The southern end of the farm complex forms part of the 19th century setting with a number of historic outbuildings, but this has since been largely redeveloped for more modern farm use from the early 20th century onwards.
It is proposed to replace identified examples of 20th century timber casement windows with metal-framed single glazed windows of a finer profile to match the retained examples of historic casement windows across the cottages. We consider this would reinstate the historic appearance of the pair of listed buildings and reverse later, unsympathetic additions of limited historic interest. We strongly recommend that further design specifications such as the type of metal and the proposed casement finish and paint colour are indicated to ensure a coherent match across the cottages.
In light of the declared Climate Emergency, BPT is supportive of sensitive sustainability retrofits, where deemed appropriate, within the historic environment, as well as the sympathetic upgrade of traditional and listed housing stock to better meet modern standards of living. As such, we therefore note a positive opportunity for the sensitive implementation of energy efficiency retrofits and thermal improvements where this does not result in harm or the loss of significant historic fabric.
We are supportive of the principle of installing secondary glazing as a less invasive and easily reversible retrofit measure. In principle, the Trust is supportive of the installation of secondary glazing to improve the thermal performance and residential comfort of a historic building and ensure its long-term, sustainable use. The installation of secondary glazing would result in very limited harm to historic fabric, restricted to the proposed fixing points.
However, we maintain that existing and proposed sections of the windows both pre- and post-installation of secondary glazing are included as part of this application to ensure that the secondary glazing is of an appropriately slim profile as to sit inconspicuously behind the historic casements. We welcome further information regarding how the secondary glazing would be secured to the existing windows and how the proposed “white powder coated aluminium framed” finish would sit against the existing windows. Currently it remains unclear as to how the proposed secondary units would interact with the original windows and we emphasise that this should be clarified before this application progresses further.
BPT is very interested in working with the applicant to reach an acceptable solution.