Ticehurst lies 10 miles southeast of Tunbridge Wells. It is an exceptionally vibrant country village with its own church, post-office, bank, general store, bookshop, antique dealers as well as many other services. There are also two public houses. Our site for a group of three terraced houses is located next to one of these: The Bell in the heart of Ticehurst village square. We refurbished The Bell for The Cathedral Group in 2011. Our residential planning application was therefore part of a wider redevelopment for the pub. However, we see the new homes as ancillary to the more public buildings in The Village. Their character has therefore been designed to make less impact. To this end, we have deliberately chosen timber construction and timber facing materials resulting in a farmhouse vernacular for the houses. However, we have wanted to include a firm link to the local area in our designs and the new homes are topped with Oast house influenced roofs, a reference back to hop drying and beer production.
Client: Cathedral Group
Engineer: Stephen Evans Associates
Designer: We Like Today