Barn storming (From Living Northeast)

Barn storming

12:15pm Tuesday 20th October 2009 in

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They’ve had their fair share of incidents… and bats stopped play for some months… but two creative couples have almost completed a stunning barn conversion. Jenny Laue visits.

JUST off the main street in Hunwick, near Bishop Auckland, at the very end of the village, are three farm buildings that are undergoing a major redevelopment. They don’t look like much from the outside yet, but walk around to the back of the site and it’s immediately clear that they are in the process of being transformed into three of the nicest homes househunters could wish for.

Cringle Byre, Cringle Meadows and Cringle Mill once belonged to Cringle Dykes Farm next door. They were the stables, milking parlour and grain mill respectively and were snapped up by mother-of-two Kate Hodgson and her business partners – husband Richard and friends Helen and Mark Pearse.

Kate is an old hand at developing barns into family homes. She and Richard previously converted their own farm buildings at Ingleton, near Darlington, into luxury holiday cottages for which they won the Enjoy England Excellence Awards Self Catering Holiday of the Year 2008-09.

Now, with the help of Helen and Mark, they’ve set their sights on similar success with the Hunwick project.

The reasons for going into business together were two-fold, says Helen. “We’ve all known each other for years. Richard I and have been friends since childhood and when he and Kate converted their holiday cottages, they employed my husband Mark to do the work. We found that we all got on really well together and that we all had a passion for converting barns, so when these came up for sale, we decided to join forces and ideas.

It’s shared responsibility and shared risk, I think.”

They bought the barns in October 2007 and set to work straight away. The two women, who more or less work full-time on the project, immediately began by laying down a new roof themselves as well as drilling out old crumbling mortar and repointing all the outside walls… in all sorts of inclement weather. Both husbands are on hand to help whenever they can, but both Richard and Mark have their own businesses. Richard has a farm to run and Mark, who is a builder and electrician, also has other outside projects.

“We get all the dirty jobs to do,” laughs Kate. “Helen and I tiled the whole pantile roof by ourselves and we dug out the cow stalls. When it comes to things like mixing cement and carrying stuff up onto the scaffolding, we don’t shy away from hard physical work.”

Helen agrees: “I think what helps us with the hard work is that we have so much fun doing it. We have a good laugh, which makes it all bearable.”

But not everything has been plain sailing for them.

The two women have had their fair share of injuries: Helen fell off a ladder and seriously sprained her leg and Kate stepped on a large nail which went through her boot and foot. But being out of action for a few days was nothing compared with the next hurdle they had to master.

By February 2008, the foursome hit a serious snag in their plans. Work on the barn conversions ground to a complete halt when they discovered bat droppings.

Bats and their roosts are protected under UK law which requires developers and home owner to carry out a bat survey to establish whether building work could disturb the creature’s habitat and what can be done to safeguard them. They then have to acquire a bat licence from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

“That bat survey took months,” remembers Helen.

“We had to stop all work over the whole of the summer last year. In the end it turned out we didn’t even have any bats, but we still had to put up a bat box.”

Downing tools for most of the year threw the project behind schedule for around seven months, by which time the recession had the world in a tight grip. Kate, Helen, Mark and Richard saw their potential profits fall drastically as the UK housing market bubble deflated.

But they weren’t disheartened and carried on with renewed drive in autumn last year. And their bank manager now thinks being forced to stop is turning out to be a blessing in disguise, as it has helped them ride out the worst of the recession. The hope is that by the time all three barns are ready to be sold, the housing market will look much healthier again.

A tour of the development reveals the barns’ idyllic setting. They’re located at the very edge of the countryside, within fields and meadows. The barns are laid out in a U-shape, forming a charming south-facing courtyard.

Cringle Byre, which will be the first barn to be completed, has three double bedrooms, one of which is en-suite, a family bathroom, a light and airy lounge with south-facing lean-to and a large live-in kitchen. It’s clear from the layout that both couples have put a lot of thought into planning the rooms, for which they’ve drawn on Kate’s prior experience in converting barns.

Everything is geared towards making family life as easy and comfortable as possible. One of the biggest selling points of all three barns will be their large modern kitchens. In each one there is enough room to fit in lots of units and worktops, all the necessary white goods, plus a dining table and sofa. Another plus is the number of large bedrooms: Cringle Byre will have three, the other two will have four.

They all agreed bedroom size was important. “We could have gone for more bedrooms, but then we would have ended up with much smaller ones and we really couldn’t see the sense in that,” says Helen.

The barns will have a shared driveway, plus a garage each and large garden. Combined with the gorgeous setting, what also contributes to the charm of the development are the small touches. Helen and Kate wanted the buildings to stay looking like barns so all new windows and doors are arched to match the old ones. All new stonework has been done in the same style and they have turned the barns’ wooden trusses and beams into features by sanding and oiling them wherever possible.

■ It is hoped the Hunwick conversions will be finished by April next year. Once all three barns are completed, they will be for sale at a guide price of £275,000 for Cringle Byre, £380,000 for Cringle Mill and £420,000 for Cringle Meadows. If you would like to keep track of progress or to see ground plans, log on to millgranary.co.uk and click on blog. For further information, ring 01325- 730339 or 07703-240000.

■To rent the Hodgson’s holiday cottages at Ingleton, near Darlington, call 01325-730339 or log onto millgranary.co.uk