Creating a characterful farmhouse

David and Susan Lockwood have designed and built a striking new country home, with the focus on feature brickwork inside and out

WORDS DEBBIE JEFFERY PHOTOS MIKE BLACK

The new house’s vernacular design includes buttressing, handmade bricks, exterior steps, arrowslit windows, a traditional grey slate roof and zinc rainwater goods

THE LOCKWOOD FILE

NAMES David & Susan Lockwood

OCCUPATIONS Surveyor & lawyer

LOCATION Lutterworth, Leicestershire

TYPE OF PROJECT Self-build

STYLE Traditional

CONSTRUCTION METHOD Brick and block with steelwork

PLOT SIZE 2.5 acres

LAND COST £300,000 (plot value after sale of farmhouse)

BOUGHT 2006

HOUSE SIZE 397m2

PROJECT COST £536,863

PROJECT COST PER M2 £1,352

TOTAL COST £836,863

VAT RECLAIM £61,000

BUILDING WORK COMMENCED April 2013

BUILDING WORK TOOK 23 months

CURRENT VALUE £975,000+

When David and Susan Lockwood purchased a listed farmhouse, ripe for renovation, they formulated a long-term plan for the village site. They’d spotted the for sale sign when driving past the house and quickly realised the property’s potential. “We’d been looking for a project and we liked the idea of restoring the farmhouse, where we could then live while building a new home for ourselves next door – although the site didn’t currently have planning permission,” says David. “It had been a working farm until the late 1970s, after which the surrounding land was sold off to other farmers.”

The Lockwoods’ offer was accepted in 2006. “We bought the house together with the land and a two-acre stock paddock, which had been planted with trees by the previous owner,” says David, who’s a surveyor. The couple had previously undertaken a number of residential projects, including building one-off properties. They quickly set to work carefully stripping out the existing grade II listed home, which was built in 1735, with the appropriate permissions in place.

“The renovation took 18 months to complete and we moved in during 2008, just before the start of the recession,” says David. “That meant our original idea to create a new house was put on hold, although we went ahead with the planning application.”