readers’ homes

Anthony and Alison Goodey built their traditional oak-framed home after a change in planning law allowed them to section off a piece of land belonging to their livery st able yard, bought some years before

WORDS JAN E CRITTENDEN

The 269m² barn-style oak frame house has been designed to look like a converted traditional Essex barn that would have been used for cattle or storing hay. Its T-shape layout, shown in the projecting gable, emulates where the original entrance would have been

PHOTOS NIKHILESH HAVAL

Keen horse riders, Anthony and Alison Goodey bought a 50-acre livery yard and equestrian centre in Essex over 17 years ago after Anthony semi-retired from the family building business, Goodey Construction. During this time, the government relaxed planning laws around developing brownfield sites. This led the couple to wonder if they might be permitted to build houses on their land, including one for themselves to live in. “The livery yard had become a lot of work so we decided to downscale,” says Anthony. “The development design philosophy was to create a typical farmyard scene that looked like the houses had always been there. For authenticity, they needed to vary in appearance, shape, size and construction, leading us to build a traditional, barn-style property, which became our new home.”

The couple were living nearby in a 1960s chalet bungalow when they began developing their ideas, back in 2017. After earmarking several dilapidated outbuildings within a two-acre section of the livery yard and equestrian centre, they had a pre-planning meeting. “We walked around the site and the planning officer asked if we were going to convert or rebuild the outbuildings,” says Anthony. “They were pretty run-down so we were relieved that the planners were on board with us knocking down and replacing them.”

Obtaining planning approval

Anthony hired an architect he knew from previous commercial projects, and they worked through sketches for a traditional farmhouse, a pair of terraced cottages, a workshop and the couple’s T-shaped barn-style home. At this stage, they didn’t know which house would be theirs as it made sense to live in the last property to be built –but they had their eye on the Essex barn from the outset. The properties needed to look like they’d been converted, with features in keeping with the local area. Anthony and Alison did their homework. “The local authority wanted all the properties to have character,” says Anthony. “We researched local barn styles and took pictures. The planning officer showed me an Essex barn conversion they were working on to ensure we had the T-shape exactly right.”