Site visit. Trawls of HER, NHLE and HE Archives. Consulting historic documents and maps. No. 3 Water Lane is a Grade II listed cottage forming a pair with No. 2, they are described as 18th century stone-built cottages with stone roofing slates. The project site is part of a group of seven Grade II listed buildings fronting Water Lane, which lies within the Castle Combe Conservation Area and within the Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. This project was commissioned in order to assess the impact of development proposals on the historic fabric of the project site, as well as the impact to adjoining properties and the wider Conservation Area. Views to the front of the project site will not be impacted by the proposed changes. Demolition of the present kitchen extension is unlikely to damage historic fabric, however the proposed kitchen extension is longer and will obscure one ground floor rear window and some of the exposed stonework on the corner of the cottage. Soft partitions on the first floor are demonstrably additions of the later 20th century and their removal is unlikely to do harm to the historic fabric. All these proposals are likely to do less than substantial harm to the historic fabric of the projects site and the wider study area. The proposal to replace the single first floor rear window with two windows at new locations, is likely to involve the removal of historic fabric from the first-floor rear wall.
D Etheridge (Sun,) studied this question.