The star of Grand Designs is for sale
‘It feels very rural and the views are amazing but the A64 is a five-minute drive away and you can be in York in half an hour and in Malton within 15 minutes.’ This multi award-winning home in an idyllic rural village close to Malton and York featured on
AS selling points go, multi-award winning is up there with the best, which is why the sale of The Old School in Howsham looks set to attract some serious attention from buyers.
The four-bedroom house, which was sensitively and creatively remodelled and extended by its owner, architect James Arkle, has an impressive trophy cabinet.
It won two RIBA awards from the Royal Institute of British Architects and subsequently made the shortlist for the RIBA National House of the Year award.
The latter was televised by Channel
4’s Grand Designs House of the Year and saw Kevin McCloud, Michelle Ogundehin and Damion Burrows marvelling at The Old School’s many charms, including the way the historic and new spaces blend so well despite being so different.
The property has also been featured in a raft of publications including, The Yorkshire Post weekend magazine, Enki, Home Building and Renovating, Build It magazine, Listed Heritage magazine and the Riba Journal, along with a mention in the book, House Goals by Ruth Sl avid.
Its remarkable transformation began when James and his wife
Gail went to view the property when on the hunt for a home for themselves and their three children.
Howsham, a small rural village on the edge of the Howardian Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, had them at ‘hello’ and no wonder as it is exceptionally beautiful and its heart is a row of cottages facing woodland and parkland.
“It’s an idyllic place with a lovely close-knit community and great walks with the river and woods nearby. We have loved every minute of living here and it’s been brilliant for the children,” says James. “It feels very rural and the views are amazing but the A64 is a five-minute drive away and you can be in York in half an hour and in Malton within 15 minutes.”
The reason for leaving is to do it all again and take on a new project, something few architects can resist. For those who buy The Old School, it is a ready-made home thanks to a project that began in 2018.
James and Gail were keen to swap suburbia for the country when they viewed what was a
Grade II listed cottage. The garden at the rear had scope for an extension and James had already visualised how it should look, even though there was no planning permission in place.
“The property was built in 1852 and was converted about 30 years ago. It is also Grade II-listed, which impacts on planning permission, but there was an unsympathetic extension and a uPVC conservatory at the back so I knew there was scope to improve on that,” says James.
He and Gail lived in the house and took time to consider what they wanted from a new extension and how it would link to the existing house. The slower approach also allowed them to save up for the work they wanted to do, while spending more time on a submission for planning permission.
The original school house had a double-height sitting room, a small kitchen, dining room and conservatory on the ground floor while upstairs were two bedrooms and a bathroom.
Rather than extending across the back of the house, James designed a linear, heavily glazed rectangular extension to house a kitchen/dining room with a utility room. This allows views down the garden to the countryside beyond.
The extension is clad with dry stone walling to reflect the local vernacular, which the planning officials liked. They didn’t like the idea of a double height extension in the conservation area but allowed James and Gail to create a reduced version within a box style structure that houses a main bedroom with en-suite and dressing room.
The conservation officer also wanted a clear articulation between old and new so the old exterior wall of the schoolhouse has been left exposed and a huge skylight ensures the two buildings do not touch. Later additions have included an annexe/home office in the garden and an outdoor kitchen with alfresco dining space.
The property has an entrance hall with bespoke, built-in storage, cloakroom, a sitting room in the old part of the house with a woodburning stove and a spiral staircase leading to the first floor.
In the contemporary extension there is a German Schuller kitchen with Neff appliances, a Quooker tap and a speaker system. There is also a utility room and a second sitting room/snug.
On the first floor, there is a galleried landing, the main bedroom with en-suite plus two further bedrooms and a bathroom. Outside is the annexe with shower room and kitchen.
“It’s quite a seasonal house in that in the winter we’ll light the fire in the old, front part of the house and it feels really cosy. In summer we gravitate to the back and the extension that opens up onto the garden,” says James. “I will miss the house not least because the balance between old and new is so special.”