We are a small company established in East Devon with over 20 years experience specialising in the high quality repair of historic buildings particularly those containing cob and increasingly in recent years the construction of new buildings. Anything from garden walls, summer houses to extensions and complete new houses using cob as the main walling material where appropriate to create beautiful buildings out of local materials which are healthy to live in and blend naturally with their environment.
The reason for setting up this web site is to encourage those who may be thinking of carrying out some building project to consider the merits of using cob, which despite the fact that it has been used in the west country for at least one thousand years, is not widely understood.
There was extensive damage to the fabric of the roof but thanks to a fire barrier installed above the rafters, the damage was relatively light to the remaining structure. Though enevitably there was a lot of water damage. Our insurers (the Halifax) have been excellent and in the scheme of things very efficient as were have already completed all the major repairs and refurbishment and are now back in the house which we feel looks even better with its new curved, reclaimed delabole slate roof, exp...
In March 2010 we obtained special planning permission under PPS7 for a large new Zero-carbon Cob House. This will be a truly ground breaking building meeting code for sustainable homes level 6 (The highest possible level) bringing cob to the cutting edge of UK domestic Architecture. The scale of this enormous project is breathtaking. We have moved over 2000 tonnes of soil and excavated over a quater of a mile of foundations laid 10 artic loads of mainy lightweight blocks as well as 25 loads of e...
Back in March 2010 we suffered a major thatch fire here at Keppel Gate There was extensive damage to the fabric of the roof but thanks to a fire barrier installed above the rafters, the damage was relatively light to the remaining structure. Though enevitably there was a lot of water damage. Our insurers (the Halifax) have been excellent and in the scheme of things very efficient as were have already completed all the major repairs and refurbishment and are now back in the house which we feel...
Lower Tricombe, built 1993/4 and various outbuildings 1995/6
This is a complete new house on a lovely south west facing rural site 1 mile from Ottery St Mary town centre half a mile from Kings school (one of Devons top comprehensives) and 10 minutes from the M5 at Exeter. The house has been designed to provide fantastic esthetic space with an emphasis on longivity and enviromental considerations. It has supurb thermal performance, hot water and heating will be provided by ground source heat pump. We have used natural local materials as far as reasonabl...
This is a complete new house, which I have built on a beautiful riverside site replacing a rather uninspiring seventies concrete bungalow. It is a north facing site with spectacular views over the river Dart. This presented the Arcitecht ( Paul Bedford, of Bedford & Jobson) with quite a tricky task of giving the owners the accomdation they sought, making the best of the views and restricting the shadow over the garden. These factors coupled with his own preference for rectiliniear form (at least...