Projects : Residential

Moathouse, Whittlesford

It was a cold January day when a colleague telephoned to ask if we would be prepared to meet him at a site in south Cambridgeshire. We arrived to find a small derelict building in an overgrown meadow surrounded by a moat. The derelict portion of the building had originally been a dairy and part of the larger Manor House, which was raised to the ground around the mid-eighteenth century.

Two years after the initial meeting the existing building had been largely demolished and rebuilt with a new transversed wing addition and various new out buildings.

The concept was to retain the moat and set up a series of buildings to form a car free enclosure protected by the surrounding moat. The addition of the curved flint tower provides the focal point to the building, its conical roof reflecting the nearby church tower. The building and landscape gardens have now matured into a wonderful setting.

On completion the property was featured on the front cover of the Eastern Region Architect's Yearbook.