What point was I trying to make with those last two rather nerdy posts about Horsham St Faith and Frettenham? What relevance do they have to the Community Right to Build?
Well, I’m suggesting that our idealized notion of what village architecture is like – in Norfolk villages at least – is often rather wide of the mark. The historic core of a picturesque older settlement often accounts for a very small portion of its total fabric, and many Norfolk villages have virtually no pre-C20th architecture. So, in my view, the question ‘What sort of development would fit or complement our village?’ should not automatically be answered with ‘house-builder Victorian pastiche’. It’s not about ornate porches and dormers, patterns in brickwork or finials (many of which are surprisingly rare even on historic buildings), rather it’s about more subtle things like the right choice of materials, overall density, orientation to the street…about which, more later.