Harrogate in North Yorkshire has constantly been voted one of the best places to live in the UK in the annual Sunday Times survey.
Located in the heart of ‘God’s own country’, the gateway to the Yorkshire Dales offers easy access to stunning countryside and yet, is within commuting distance of Leeds and York.
It has also been voted, three years running, as ‘one of the happiest places to live’. This and the fact that the area has retained many of its historic buildings and open spaces, such as the impressive Stray and Valley Gardens, is probably one the key reasons why properties are soon snapped up when they come on the market.
One of the Town’s most desirable areas is the Duchy. Comprising around 1000 homes set in parkland, this is where former Mill owners built their mini-mansions and is today a highly desirable venue, especially for young professionals and retirees.
Property development, however, is severely limited due to its location. The area falls within the Harrogate Conservation area with all developments closely considered by the Council, residents Association and Civic Society to ensure they meet the Conservation area criteria.
One of the key planning requirements for a recent development – the conversion of a former office block into 27 luxury two and three-bedroom apartments – was that the building materials of any new construction would match the adjoining property.
To ensure compliance, construction company, Clarence Drive Estates, invited us to solve a problem of linking features of the existing adjoining property with the new build development. In particular, they wanted to hide an extensive wooden box gutter to cover the junction between old and new.
Our solution was to produce a decorative cornice, manufactured off-site using our revolutionary Stone-Coat architectural moulding. Stone-Coat can be fabricated to any profile, shape or colour to give the appearance of traditional stone. This makes it an ideal solution for matching profiles of existing buildings as well as complementing the original construction material.
It is also substantially lighter than traditional building material. This means, Stone-Coat offers safe and easy installation requiring non-heavy equipment and non-specialist skill tradespeople.
As a final footnote. The Company were so pleased with the supplied upper-level cornice that they ordered extra canopies for the lower level. Result.
