{"id":250982,"date":"2026-01-25T11:06:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T11:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/250982\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T11:06:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T11:06:29","slug":"the-historic-homes-that-have-won-awards-for-their-modern-extensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/250982\/","title":{"rendered":"The historic homes that have won awards for their modern extensions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Britain\u2019s half a million listed homes are falling out of favour with younger buyers who \u201cdon\u2019t want the hassle\u201d. In their eyes heritage homes are expensive, difficult to update, not energy efficient and costly to insure, says Martin Anslow, director of the Listed Property Owners\u2019 Club (LPOC). \u201cIt\u2019s creating a real problem because there\u2019s not as much demand for this type of property.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet he is hopeful. The latest awards for listed property renovations show that with the right architect and builders you can create something truly special. <\/p>\n

\u201cCareful architecture wins over big, shouty architecture,\u201d says Jonathan Duck, a conservation adviser to the club. \u201cThere are [listed] buildings from hovels to mansions,\u201d he adds. Successful extensions are usually \u201csubservient\u201d and \u201crespecting the architectural meaning of the building. If you live somewhere like I do, in a little cottage, trying to add something high status\u2026 just looks weird\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Inside comedian Josh Widdicombe\u2019s dream home renovation in Cornwall<\/a><\/p>\n

The colours and materials of an extension or work should tonally tie in with a listed home, Duck says. \u201cI\u2019m a bit of an artist. I always say to people, you must squint through your eyelashes when you paint. It\u2019s the same with houses.\u201d A bright red extension on a \u201cfully white\u201d house \u201cis going to jar\u201d. <\/p>\n

However, a \u201cmassive\u201d lack of conservation planners at local councils is a \u201creal problem\u201d, Anslow says. As many as four in five councils don\u2019t have enough planners to advise on heritage projects, Duck adds. \u201cThere\u2019s just not enough bums on seats. Government doesn\u2019t want to fund it. It\u2019s not sexy to be looking after old buildings. But nobody goes to Slough or Milton Keynes for the architecture. Most people will go to places where there are old buildings. Chester or York or Bath or London or Cambridge or Canterbury\u2026 Heritage is a finite resource. Once it\u2019s gone, it\u2019s gone.\u201d <\/p>\n

Here we reveal the homes that have overcome the odds to feature in the Listed & Modern Architectural awards 2025.<\/p>\n

Best conversion, adaptation and reuseWinner: Plas Hendy stable block\"Collage<\/p>\n

The outside louvres are opened by turning an old cartwheel, seen on the right<\/p>\n

FRANCESCO MONTAGUTI<\/p>\n

Plas Hendy was built in 1903 for two children who lost their parents in a boating accident on the River Wye. Three generations later Ben Crawley, the grandson of one of those orphans, helped to design a joyful rebirth of the Monmouthshire house\u2019s dilapidated stable block. It is now a three-bedroom Welsh holiday home enjoyed by 21 members of the Crawley family.<\/p>\n

The grade II listed stable block had three distinctive sets of sliding garage doors that were \u201cmaking the biggest room quite dark\u201d, says Crawley, who founded Studio Brassica with his wife and fellow architect Claire Priest (studiobrassica.co.uk<\/a>). The duo\u2019s solution was to reuse the garage doors inside the building as barn-style sliding doors. Outside they replaced them with bespoke pivoting louvres, which when shut \u201creflect solidity of what was there\u201d but can open to let the sunlight in, Crawley says. Delightfully, you open the louvres by turning an old cartwheel found on site. <\/p>\n

\"Family<\/p>\n

The judges considered the extension to be \u201cbeautiful, considered and playful\u201d<\/p>\n

FRANCESCO MONTAGUTI<\/p>\n

A small modern rear extension added a stylish accessible bathroom for Crawley\u2019s elderly mother, aunt and uncle, as well as space to fit the kit for an air-source heat pump system. <\/p>\n

Glazed sawtooth bricks cover part of the building. The simple material \u201ccreates this really beautiful weave effect\u201d that felt appropriate for the Arts and Crafts building and \u201cchanges so much in the Welsh weather\u201d, Priest says. \u201cWe had a lot of fun with it.\u201d Plas Hendy was also shortlisted for the Riba House of the Year in 2024.<\/a><\/p>\n

Crawley\u2019s uncle William Crawley, who was born at the property and who helped to pay for the \u00a3401,000 renovation, adds: \u201cWe\u2019ve been so chuffed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judges\u2019 verdict: \u201cBeautiful, considered and playful \u2014 but sensitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Highly commended: Wool Hall\"Wool<\/p>\n

The grand entrance to Wool Hall, Somerset<\/p>\n

JAMES BRITTAIN<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The property\u2019s extension was clad in rust-stained larch to echo the terracotta roof tiles<\/p>\n

JAMES BRITTAIN<\/p>\n

Built to exhibit wool in the 16th century, chapel-like Wool Hall outside Frome, Somerset, became a recording studio after Tears for Fears bought it in the 1980s. Within its walls played Van Morrison (who later owned it), Joni Mitchell, the Cure, the Pretenders and the Smiths. By 2020 it had fallen into disrepair but was bought by the music producer Luke Potashnick and his young family. \u201cYou can feel creativity in the bones of the space,\u201d he told House & Garden magazine. \u201cThat was clear to us from our first visit.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Dining<\/p>\n

The old stone hall was converted into the kitchen space<\/p>\n

JAMES BRITTAIN<\/p>\n

To stop the historic main house from feeling like a long train carriage with a succession of rooms, the architectural designer Jonathan Tuckey (tuckeydesign.com<\/a>) created a new entrance in the middle, tied together by an industrial green staircase. The old stone hall with its arched doors \u2014 and its walls now covered with insulating cork and lime plaster \u2014 contains the kitchen, with a monastic feel. A 1980s extension was clad in rust-stained larch to echo the terracotta roof tiles. <\/p>\n

Commended: Timbercombe \"Timbercombe<\/p>\n

Timbercombe, Gloucestershire<\/p>\n

Alicia Robert, who grew up in Dallas, had never farmed but always liked cows. When her children were grown she saw a picture in The Times of a hidden Cotswold valley near Stroud. She and her French husband, Xavier, who works in finance, bought it. There, with a suckler herd of Dexter cattle \u2014 Britain\u2019s smallest native breed \u2014 she started to produce her Dillay beef boxes. She also set about restoring a ruined cottage, once home to Rosie Bannen, a local legend who lived without electricity or running water and painted her door bright yellow to welcome visitors to the end of her long lane.<\/p>\n

\"Timbercombe<\/p>\n

The cottage was in ruins when Alicia Robert and her husband bought the property in 2019<\/p>\n

\"Collage<\/p>\n

As well as fully renovating the property, the couple added an extension and a yellow door tribute to a local legend<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time we got here [in 2019] there were three trees growing inside. There was no roof left. Just three walls that could be saved,\u201d Robert says. With the help of local craftsmen such as the aptly named Gareth Stone, aka Rocky, they used the fallen stones to recreate those walls. <\/p>\n

This time, with Gransmore Architects (gransmore.co.uk<\/a>), they lined the walls internally with wood fibre insulation and lime plaster, and covered the roof in GB Sol solar tiles that look like slate. A new extension was clad in larch felled on the estate, and a local cabinet maker who knew Rosie made a new yellow door. The cottage, Timbercombe, is now available as an artist\u2019s retreat (dillay.co.uk<\/a>). <\/p>\n

Best contemporary extensionWinner: Flint Farm \"Flint<\/p>\n

Flint Farm, Hertfordshire<\/p>\n

JOHAN DEHLIN<\/p>\n

Anyone extending a historic home has to choose whether to go traditional or modern. At a grade II listed farmhouse in Hertfordshire, a family who left London with two young children opted for the latter \u2014 with a touch of the former. <\/p>\n

The house had a mammoth uPVC conservatory and a \u201cvery detracting\u201d 1960s utility at the side, says Will Gamble, the architect who redesigned it (willgamblearchitects.com<\/a>). He guided them to knock down the conservatory and replace the utility with a kitchen extension, which linked the house to a neglected old barn that became a family room with rugged exposed beams. <\/p>\n

\"Modern<\/p>\n

The judges described the project as \u201cvisually simple, appropriately scaled, well-detailed, elegant and respectful\u201d<\/p>\n

JOHAN DEHLIN<\/p>\n

\"Collage<\/p>\n

The extension links the house to an old barn that became a family room with exposed beams<\/p>\n

JOHAN DEHLIN<\/p>\n

The heavily glazed extension has a \u201ccrown\u201d of angular black metal, picking up on the old black timber farmyard gables around it. It sits on low walls of flint, which appears throughout the farmstead, to anchor it to the landscape, Gamble says.<\/p>\n

Judges\u2019 verdict: \u201cA visually simple, appropriately scaled, well-detailed, elegant and respectful extension. It is also funky and fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 How a couple transformed a seaside villa into a vintage-filled home<\/a><\/p>\n

Highly commended: Whitberry\"Whitberry<\/p>\n

The modern kitchen extension to the Whitberry farmhouse in East Lothian<\/p>\n

LORENZO ZANDRI<\/p>\n

In 2018 Nick and Jessica Chatters, their two toddlers in tow, swapped Edinburgh for a grade B listed farmhouse they bought from the East Lothian estate of Tyninghame House. \u201cWith its chocolate box appearance, historic walled garden and clear potential, we fell hard for it,\u201d Jessica, 40, says. They became the first private owners of what had been home to the factor who ran the Earl of Haddington\u2019s former family seat.<\/p>\n

Room by magnolia room, Nick (who came from a family of engineers) tackled \u201crotten windows and floors, barricaded shutters, asbestos, layers of wallpaper and dodgy plumbing\u201d, adds Jessica, who gave birth to the youngest of their three children (now aged five to eleven) in the midst of the project. <\/p>\n

\"Whitberry<\/p>\n

The buyers loved the property\u2019s chocolate-box appearance<\/p>\n

LORENZO ZANDRI<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The kitchen extension opens up views over the walled garden<\/p>\n

LORENZO ZANDRI<\/p>\n

In 2021 they asked the architect Pend (pendarchitects.com<\/a>) to design a kitchen extension to open up views over the walled garden and tie together the haphazard patchwork of older rear additions. Its solution? A fluted precast stone extension that reflects the blush pink tones of the house and unifies it all. It is the new \u201cstar of the show\u201d, Jessica says.<\/p>\n

Highly commended: Laurel Cottage\"Laurel<\/p>\n

Laurel Cottage, near Chichester Harbour, with its striking asymmetrical extension<\/p>\n

MATTHEW SMITH<\/p>\n

For centuries the local blacksmith had lived in a thatched flint cottage near Chichester Harbour. It is now a boating bolt hole for Jeff Eldredge and his family of avid sailors, who bought the cottage from a friend in 2018 having holidayed there for many years. <\/p>\n

Untouched for decades, the cottage had a galley kitchen and small rooms. To create an open-plan kitchen and a fourth bedroom the Eldredges added a striking asymmetrical extension clad in corten weathered steel.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The extension features an open-plan kitchen with expansive garden views<\/p>\n

MATTHEW SMITH<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A fourth bedroom has also been added<\/p>\n

MATTHEW SMITH<\/p>\n

Research into the blacksmith cottage\u2019s history by the planning consultancy Whaleback defined the shape and material palette of \u201can extension forged out of the building\u201d, says Tom Wild of Helyer Davies Architects, who designed it. A glass walkway links it to the cottage, juxtaposing old and new (hdarchitects.co.uk<\/a>). <\/p>\n

Eldredge, a retired lawyer, likes the contrast. \u201cIt was a lovely little cottage. I wanted people to see what was there before [and not wonder] what was added.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2022 We turned a freezing semi into a warm home with the ultimate sea view<\/a><\/p>\n

Top tips from listed property owners<\/p>\n

1. Know your listed building
Understanding what makes a building special takes time. The more you understand about your building\u2019s history and development, the better equipped you will be to make decisions about future changes, which parts are sensitive to change and which parts would benefit from change.<\/p>\n

2. Don\u2019t rush in
Before making decisions about alterations to your building it pays to live with it for a while. It is surprising how much ideas and aspirations can change once you spend time with a building and get to know its idiosyncrasies. <\/p>\n

3. Understand traditional building
Traditional building materials look and behave differently from modern building materials. Understanding how traditional buildings allow moisture (rainwater, ground water and condensation) to evaporate freely away cannot be overstated.<\/p>\n

4. Use the correct materials
Endless damage has occurred in the past as a result of using inappropriate building materials, which can affect a building\u2019s ability to stay warm and dry. Avoid the use of cement, gypsum plasters or impervious coatings in traditionally constructed listed buildings.<\/p>\n

5. Use skilled craftspeople
Finding the right help, and avoiding the wrong help, is half the battle. Check the credentials of those you appoint to provide advice or work on your listed building. Don\u2019t assume that cheapest is best or that those who claim to be heritage specialists necessarily are.<\/p>\n

6. Plan for regular maintenance
Old houses require more regular maintenance than modern houses. Routine checks and maintenance can avoid the need for more significant and costly repairs, so it pays to check rainwater goods and roofs periodically.<\/p>\n

7. Conservation officers are friends, not foes
Few local councils provide the hands-on service that they used to for listed building owners but their aim of caring for listed buildings and protecting them for the future is the same as yours. They will often possess in-depth knowledge of local building history and techniques.<\/p>\n

8. Tread lightly
Once lost, historic finishes, or the patina that comes only with age, cannot be reproduced. Respect the old and avoid the temptation to over-restore, which can be as harmful as total loss.<\/p>\n

9. Buy the right house
If the listed house you have fallen in love with needs extensive alteration and a large extension to suit your family\u2019s needs, it is probably not the right house for you. You can\u2019t assume that consent will necessarily be forthcoming for the level of intervention that you propose. <\/p>\n

10. Work within the law
All alterations that affect the significance of a listed building (internal or external) require consent from the local planning authority. Treat what you read on the internet with caution and if in doubt take professional advice or contact the LPOC helpline, 01795 844939.<\/p>\n

Extracted from a 120-page guide to extending and renovating listed properties, which will launch at the Listed Property Show, where conservation experts will offer advice (Jan 30-31 at Olympia, London W14, lpoc.co.uk<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Britain\u2019s half a million listed homes are falling out of favour with younger buyers who \u201cdon\u2019t want the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-250982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}