The Old Museum

Hambleden

The original property commissioned by a former Viscount Hambleden was constructed as a museum in the Arts and Crafts style with the subsequent addition of an integral caretakers house on an elevated site on the outskirts of the village and is subject to restrictive covenants applied by The National Trust. The building is faced externally in brick and flint under a steeply pitched clay tiled roof. The gables are richly decorated and doors and windows finely detailed. Joinery is a combination of stained and painted timber windows which are predominantly leaded. The original museum was top lit by a series of high level dormer windows positioned between oak trusses which are a feature of the original building.

The property subsequently had been converted to provide two self-contained flats within the main body of the museum while the Caretaker’s cottage was used as the Estate Office.

Our clients purchased the property with the aim of converting it to a single dwelling. The work undertaken involved not only the removal of previous extensions, external and internal alterations to the original structure and demolition and replacing assorted outbuildings but the construction of a three bay two storey pitched roof rear extension, relocating the front entrance and construction of a new garage.

In creating the new complex extensive recontouring of the rear of the site was carried out to minimise the impact of the extension the garage and enlarged carprking space. Alterations to the exterior included a new entrance porch, chimneys while the internal work required the careful adaptation of the existing trusses insertion of a new floor and staircase.