Services

Heritage services, from first sketch to final pointing.

Heritage statements, listed building consent, pre-purchase reviews, repair specifications and full project stewardship — for listed buildings, conservation areas and traditionally built homes across the UK. Every engagement starts with a free 30-minute Zoom.

Why Engage Early

A single conversation, before the architect, can save tens of thousands of pounds.

The most expensive heritage projects we're asked to rescue are almost always the ones where the design ran ahead of the planning thinking. By the time a refusal lands or a conservation officer raises a fundamental objection, fees have been spent, programmes have slipped, and the only options left are the painful ones.

Abortive design fees

Architects' RIBA Stage 2–3 fees on a typical heritage scheme run £8,000–£40,000+. Redesigning after a refusal often means most of that is wasted, plus the redesign itself. We routinely see total exposure of £25k–£80k from a single avoidable misstep.

Programme delays

A refused application costs 6–12 months: appeal, re-submission, or a pre-app dialogue that should have happened in the first place. Borrowing costs, rental of alternative accommodation, and contractor remobilisation all compound the loss.

Enforcement & prosecution

Unauthorised works to a listed building are a criminal offence under Section 9 of the 1990 Act. Recent cases include £20,000 fines for individual owners (Tower Hamlets, 2023) and significantly more for repeat or contested breaches.

By contrast, a typical pre-planning engagement costs a small fraction of that exposure — and the initial Zoom is free.

Full Service List

Six core services, mixed and matched to your building.

Pre-Purchase Heritage Advisory

Thinking of buying an old house? Bring us in before you exchange. We review the listing entry, conservation area context, planning history, condition photos and (crucially) the RICS survey — separating real concerns from the boilerplate alarm that almost every survey of a traditional building contains. The aim is simple: an honest, traditionally-minded view of what you're actually taking on, before the offer is final.

Available UK-wide, typically within 3–5 days of instruction. Often saves buyers from over-paying — or from walking away from a perfectly sound building because of a misdiagnosed 'damp problem'.

Pre-Planning Advisory

Honest, early-stage assessment of significance and the room for change. Before an architect is engaged or a survey commissioned, we tell you what is likely, what is achievable with effort, and what should be left well alone. This single conversation routinely saves clients tens of thousands of pounds in redesign, abortive fees and refused applications.

Includes: desktop heritage research, site walk-around (in person or by video), a preliminary significance note, and a written summary of likely planning routes.

Heritage Statements & Planning Applications

Properly evidenced Heritage Statements, Statements of Significance, Heritage Impact Assessments and Listed Building Consent applications — written to the standard expected by Historic England, conservation officers and planning inspectors. We coordinate the dialogue with the local authority so your architect can focus on design.

Aligned with Historic England's Good Practice Advice notes (GPA 2 & 3), the NPPF Chapter 16, and the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990.

Architect & Design Team Collaboration

We've worked alongside conservation architects, structural engineers and surveyors on schemes from single-cottage repair to multi-million-pound country house restorations. We can either join your existing team as the heritage voice in the room, or introduce you to specialists matched to your building.

An accredited conservation architect (RIBA SCA, AABC) is required for many Grade I and II* schemes — we'll tell you when, and introduce you to the right one.

Sympathetic Trades & Specialists

Lime plasterers, stonemasons, leadworkers, joiners, thatchers, hand-riven oak shingle makers, blacksmiths, lime washers, traditional plumbers and electricians who understand surface-mount on lath-and-plaster. A national network, vetted personally over many years and matched to your building's character and your budget.

We do not take commission from trades. The recommendation is the right one for the building, not the one that pays best.

End-to-End Project Stewardship

A single, calm point of contact from first thought to handover: feasibility, consents, design coordination, contractor procurement, programme oversight, quality on site and snagging. Particularly suited to clients who don't live near the building, or who simply don't want the day-to-day of a heritage project.

Typical engagements run 6–24 months. We work to a fixed monthly retainer or a percentage of build cost, whichever is fairer for the project.

Point Projects & Trade Sourcing

Sometimes you simply need the right person on site next month — a chimney repointed in lime, a sash window properly draught-stripped, a section of cob wall rebuilt. We can source and recommend trades for one-off works without the wider package, with a brief written specification so the work is done correctly.

Minimum engagement: a single specialist introduction (one fixed fee). No commitment to anything further.

The Trade Network — Why It Matters

Modern trades are extraordinarily skilled — at modern buildings.

Through no fault of their own, the vast majority of builders, plasterers, plumbers and electricians trained in the UK over the past forty years have had little or no exposure to traditional construction. The City & Guilds and NVQ syllabuses are built around cavity walls, gypsum, cement, plastic membranes and PVC. Lime is, at best, a half-day module.

The result is a generation of genuinely competent tradespeople who, when faced with a solid stone wall, a lath-and-plaster ceiling or a cob barn, instinctively reach for the materials they know. Those materials almost always cause harm — sometimes catastrophic, often invisible for the first decade.

We don't blame the trades. We simply hold a network of those who took the additional time — through SPAB courses, the Heritage Crafts Association, traditional apprenticeships and years on listed sites — to learn the older ways. When we recommend someone, we know they will not quietly default to cement when the lime proves a little fussy on a cold morning.

How We Work

Three calm steps.

A free Zoom call

Half an hour, your photos, your hopes. We map the territory, flag any obvious heritage concerns, and tell you what kind of help (if any) you actually need.

A tailored proposal

A written package or single service shaped to the building, your timeline and your budget. Fixed fees wherever possible. No upselling.

Quiet, careful delivery

Whether end-to-end stewardship or a single trade introduction, the work is done well, on time, and with the building's long-term health as the first principle.

Not sure where to begin?

That's exactly what the free consultation is for. No obligation, no hard sell — just an honest half-hour about your building and what's actually involved.

Book Your Free Zoom

30 minutes · No obligation · Or message WhatsApp on 07377 594087