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s a veteran self-builder, John Askew has plenty of advice to share. When he and his wife, Sue, built their current home – the fifth selfbuild they have completed  they opted to sell their previous house and move into an onsite caravan for nine months. “We got one with an apex roof, rather than the flatroofed kind, says yearold ohn. here is no insulation in a flatroof caravan, so you don’t want one of those. It was quite cosy, but however you sealed it up you couldn’t keep the dust out.


This was at the end of February 2022, when building work on their new detached farmhouse had been going on for around four months. John couldn’t wait to get closer to the action – he and ue, also , have always been handson, doing everything from digging foundations to driving plant hire. t was difficult to source a caravan to buy in the first place, ohn says, because in the aftermath of Covid, there was huge demand from holiday parks and people opting to take a break at home instead of travelling abroad. Such challenges are all in a day’s work for John, an arable farmer with 550 acres, and Sue, a retired practice manager, who have two adult sons with their own families; one lives 3,500 miles away in New York, the other in the nearby village of Guyhirn. John and Sue’s new home, Beech House, in Marshland St James, near Downham Market, orfolk, was finished in eptember . ts called Beech House because John and Sue planted a row of native beech around the perimeter, to provide an attractive natural hedge and help shield their home from the winds that race across the tranquil East Anglian landscape. Beech House, its garage and an accompanying


42 www.sbhonline.co.uk


agricultural shed was built under aragraph  (now Paragraph 80) and agricultural provision planning permissions, another challenge to be negotiated. The new house would stand a significant distance of a couple of miles from the development area boundary around the village of Marshland St James, but needed to be there as it is central to John’s farming operations. This presented an issue with the rules of aragraph , which allows individual new build homes in rural areas only in exceptional circumstances and when a number of conditions, including external appearance and sustainability, have been met. The Askews’ architect, James Burton at Swann


Edwards, an architecture practice in Wisbech, ambridgeshire, eplains that the justification for agricultural provision was hard to achieve because John’s farming business is arable; as such there is no requirement for him to be present on the site to tend to livestock. James argued that in appearance and sustainable terms, the new house would meet the criteria of aragraph . ohn and ue have lived in the local area all their lives. Their brief was for a modern home that reflects the fen landscape and its agricultural nature, he says. “We spent time exploring the area and the typology of agricultural buildings, in particular grain stores and how they have evolved over time. Typically, these will be a single span building with concrete grain store walling up to a height, with a simple cladded structure above. The house is faced with steel trapezoidal cladding to reflect the rural vernacular. ohn and Sue and their architect discussed the potential construction options available and the pros and cons of each.


HIGH POINT


Definitely realising how this house is set out with the views. We’ve never had views like this before, the glazing lets us see so much. – John Askew


“The glazing. You get all the skyscapes, all the weather, and even the moonscapes as well – Sue Askew


sep/oct 2024


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