The winners of Maldon Conservation & Design Awards 2024
Four Maldon District properties received awards on Thursday at the 41st Maldon District Conservation and Design Awards.
The award ceremony took place in Maldon on December 19th, and celebrated remarkable conversions, property design and landscaping in the area.
Councillor Mark Durham, Maldon District Council's Chair of the Strategy and Resources Committee, said: "Maldon's Conservation and Design Awards are a wonderful way of celebrating outstanding local projects.
"This year's award-winning schemes demonstrate the power of our natural and built environment and how it inspires high quality work."
Awards categories include Building Conservation, Design, Sustainability, and Landscape:
Building Conservation
The Building Conservation Winner was the Former Police Station on Maldon High Street.
Originally built in 1913 to designs by the County Architect Frank Whitmore, the landmark building was vacated by the police in 2017 and has since sat empty.
Pocknells Accountants acquired the building in July 2022 and within 10 months completed the conversion of it.
As it is not a listed building, internal features have no protection, but Pocknells nevertheless chose to retain many of them, including the original cells which have been made into meeting rooms.
The judges admired the considerable effort that has gone into the renovation, and the fun way in which the history of the building has been embraced.
Local contractors Wait Edwards completed the building work, with notable contributions from Luke Wait, Dave Blackman and Paul Blackman.
A highly commended building was The Gallery also on Maldon High Street.
This new shopfront, installed for artist Joanna Milne's new gallery, was described to have achieved a "clear enhancement to the street scene."
The grade II building, which dates from the early 1600s, has been altered many times over the centuries and, until recently, had quite a disjointed and cluttered frontage.
The new hand-painted timber shopfront and hanging sign have successfully unified the elevation and reinforced the traditional character of this part of the Maldon Conservation Area.
In a message on The Gallery Facebook page, Joanna Milne said: "We are delighted to receive this recognition and special thanks go out to Luke Wait and the team for their excellent craftsmanship and flawless execution of the project, and for bringing my vision to life."
The concept for the design was sketched by Joanna Milne, with architectural drawings for a planning application prepared by William Morgan of Petro Designs Ltd. The builder was Luke Wait of D J Wait & Son.
Design
Design Winner was the 'forever home' self- built by Julia and Tony Bourn in Fish Street, Goldhanger. This unassuming 1 ½ storey home blew away the judges due to its exceptional design, execution and sustainability credentials.
The pitched-roof form and natural materials – including sustainably sourced larch cladding – allow it to sit comfortably in the historic village street scene.
Internally, an open-plan design is softened by European oak finishes which in places have been steamed to achieve gentle curves.
Notably, this is the first house in the Maldon District to receive 'passivhaus' certification, designed to use minimal energy, and meeting standards well in excess of the building regulations.
Its floor, walls and roof are highly insulated while the windows are triple glazed. Materials have been carefully chosen and deployed to minimise heat loss through conduction, while an outstanding level of air tightness limits the amount of heat lost through draughts.
The design utilises natural light and solar gain in the winter to heat the building, and sunshade blinds and brise soleil to control the heat gain in the summer.
Twenty-six solar panels, integrated into the slate roof, electric batteries and EV charging facilities reduce the electricity consumption significantly.
The property also incorporates a heat exchanger which recovers heat from waste hot water.
The house operates primarily 'off grid' for 7-9 months of the year.
This building was also highly commended for the sustainability award.
Sustainability
The Museum of Power in Langford was the 2024 Sustainability Winner, as well as highly commended in the design category.
The awards acknowledge the remarkable achievements of the 2017-2024 'Powering Forward Project', which have enhanced the Museum of Power's visitor experience, learning opportunities and long-term sustainability as a valued community facility.
The museum occupies an Essex & Suffolk Water former pumping station built in 1927 which is now highly protected as a Scheduled Monument.
A bold new extension provides an entrance, reception, shop, easy-access toilets, and a supplementary seating area for the popular Tea Room.
The extension's brown-coloured metal cladding references the industrial history of the site and creates a crisp modern aesthetic against the already rich material composition of the existing buildings on site.
Supported through a major application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the project has included a redesign of the museum's exhibitions with an increased emphasis on sustainable methods of generating power.
The extension was designed by Ingleton Wood LLP of Colchester, the contractor was TJ Evers of Tiptree and international design consultancy, Imagemakers, developed the new interpretation for the collection.
Landscape
Great Ruffind country house was designed and built in 1903 by the renowned Arts and Crafts Architect Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo.
Now grade II* listed, the home overlooks a 9 ½ acre contemporary landscaped garden sloping down to the south, also designed by Mackmurdo, but much altered by later owners.
By the time the present owners acquired the property in 2017, the garden was very overgrown. Their aim has been to uncover features of the original design, and to integrate these into a re-creation of a landscape that honours Mackmurdo's sense of aesthetics and the dream-like qualities of this special place.
The central axis of the garden designed by Mackmurdo has been reinforced by the introduction of a rill which connects to a circular pond and draws the eye from the house to the woods at the far end of the garden.
The rill has been formally planted as a parterre with help from friends. One odd but endearing original feature, a sunken rockery, has been restored and planted, drawing inspiration from Beth Chatto's gravel garden. Numerous borders have been planted with contrasting cool and warm colours.
A 'Spring Walk' is bordered by extravagant blossom in early spring – camellias, azaleas and rhododendrons. Part of the garden which slopes up to 3 magnificent beech trees has been planted as a heather moor, in the interest of attracting bees and other pollinators, involving planting almost 2,000 heather plants.
The owners have created not only a place of tranquillity and delight, but also the lieu of parties, croquet games, musical events and, most notably, popular annual opera evenings enjoyed by the local community and by those living further afield.
The judging panel agreed that the owners are doing something truly wonderful by sympathetically revitalising one of the district's most significant designed landscapes. They were particularly impressed by how much of the work the owners have done themselves.
This year's judging panel included David Fell, from The Maldon Society; Toby Slater, Conservation Carpenter representing the Essex Regional Group of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB); Kevin Bruce, Local historian; Richard Collins, Great Braxted Parish Council and Julia Cameron, Inkpen Downie Architects.
Councillor Richard Siddall Leader of the council "I would like to congratulate all the winners and those that were shortlisted. The range and quality of the award of the winners demonstrates the diversity of our District.
"I would like to thank them for helping to preserve and enhance the uniqueness of our historic District."
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