Chapel Court, Penwithick, Cornwall.
Local Authority
Restormel Borough Council
Housing Association
Ocean Housing Group
Architect
Alan Leather Associates
Employers Agent
Taylor Lewis
Contractor
Gilbert & Goode Ltd (Part of the Ocean Housing Group)
Number of Bedrooms
46
Cost
Circa £2.2m
The Site.
Located in the in the village of Penwithick, close to St Austell, the site was assembled by the purchase of an owner-occupied flat, a disused Methodist chapel, a portion of adjoining garden, a council owned public convenience and the redevelopment of a difficult-to-let 3 storey block of 5 flats and one shop.
The Scheme
Chapel Court comprises 16 social rented dwellings and 4 HomeBuy properties, constructed on a very constrained infill site.
The new build houses and apartments were constructed using the Advantage South West (ASW) timber framed MMC product, with the chapel refurbishment and conversion using more traditional techniques.Ocean was one of the four founder members of the ASW partnership, which won the Housing Corporation Gold Medal for Procurement in 2007.
Chapel Court is typical of Ocean’s ambitious development programme which channels significant investment into Cornwall’s “clay villages”; small rural mining settlements which experienced rapid expansion in the late 19th/early 20th century as a result of the massive demand for china clay.
The four shared ownership properties are fully integrated into scheme which includes renewable energy features such as heat recovery and solar water heating.The chapel, which dates from the mid 1800’s, was not listed but is a dominant feature on the street scene and thought worthy of retention.The chapel building envelope required extensive structural works to strengthen the shell before its conversion to create 4 two bedroom “terraced” homes.A number of the chapel’s attractive original features have been retained and enhanced, including its stained glass windows, structural roof timbers and metal tie beams.The construction contract was let in two phases and carried out by Ocean’s in-house construction company, Gilbert & Goode.
Completion.
Spring 2008.
