The Alliance was pleased to attend the recent launch of Historic England’s guidance on Traditional Farm buildings. Speeches included one from Lord Gardiner, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Rural Affairs, who indicated that there may be some new funding for rare cases where no adaptive reuse at all is possible. The documents below can be found on the Historic England website. The next edition of the Heritage Online Debate will also be focusing on the issue of farm buildings and will be on the Historic England site here from mid-November.
The Adaptive Reuse of Traditional Farm Buildings
Best practice guidelines for adaptive reuse
This guidance aimed at owners, building professionals and local planning authorities was first published in 2006 as the Conversion of Traditional Farm Buildings. It recognises the majority of traditional farm buildings have now become partly or wholly redundant for modern agricultural purposes, unsupported by income to fund their maintenance and repair, but still have the potential to be of economic value. The guidance explains how significance can be retained and enhanced through well informed and designed adaptation to new uses.
The Maintenance and Repair of Traditional Farm Buildings
A guide to good practice
This guide provides practical advice to farmers, land managers and others involved with the maintenance and repair of traditional farm buildings. It explains how work of this kind can be considered in a wider context of sustainable management to ensure these buildings have an economic value and a future. The guidance is primarily directed at buildings in active farming or related uses but recognises with changing agricultural practices and economic pressures many traditional farm buildings have lost their original purpose and become vulnerable to neglect and decay. Many may, therefore, need urgent works to prevent further deterioration of their structure and fabric.
To complement these revisions a new Historic England Advice Note has been added:
Historic England Advice Note 9:
The Adaptive Reuse of Traditional Farm Buildings
This new addition to the series of advice notes provides a synopsis of the key issues involved in adapting traditional farm buildings to new uses. It places the need to understand the significance of any farmstead or building, its relationship to the wider landscape setting and its sensitivity and capacity for change, within the context of the National Planning Policy Framework.