A full renovation touches the structure, the services and the outside of the house at once, so it collects more consent questions than any single item of work. In Hitchin those questions start with designation, because four conservation areas and a local register sit over parts of the town. We coordinate the whole job, appoint the structural engineer where the work is structural, and build to what they issue. This page sets out what shapes a Hitchin renovation.
Hitchin has four conservation areas, not one
They are Hitchin, Butts Close Hitchin, Hitchin Hill Path, and Hitchin Railway and Ransoms Recreation Ground. All four sets of documents were adopted by the council on 26 July 2011. The Hitchin Conservation Area itself was designated on 14 March 1969. A first review, incorporating boundary changes, was adopted in January 1998, and the character statement adopted on 26 July 2011 was the second review.
Butts Close, Hitchin was created as a new designation in the 2011 review, and it is contained by Fishponds Road and Bedford Road. The Hitchin Hill Path Conservation Area is centred on Hitchin Hill Path, a narrow footpath, with Butchers Lane providing rear access to the buildings on its north side. Which area an address falls in is the first thing we check, because the answer changes the consent route for the whole programme.
About 300 buildings in the conservation area are listed, and 96 more sit on a local register
The council's character statement records about 300 listed buildings in the Hitchin Conservation Area. It also records 96 buildings or structures on the adopted Hitchin Parish Local List, which the council prepared with the assistance of the Hitchin Historical Society. The Hitchin Register of Buildings of Local Interest was approved at a Cabinet meeting on 26 July 2011, after two rounds of public consultation that began with an exhibition launch on 4 July 2009.
Being on that register is not the same as being listed. North Herts Council states that there are no additional controls over works to assets included on a local register, so a locally listed Hitchin house does not need listed building consent. The entry is still a material consideration where a planning application is required. We check the statutory list and the register for your address before pricing anything.
The materials in older Hitchin buildings came from close by
Two important medieval brick kilns have been identified off Paynes Park and Bancroft. Brick making in the town, in red and white brick, continued until the early 20th century, and the name Tilehouse Street reflects that local industry. Clunch quarried at nearby Ashwell and Royston, together with flint, was used in the construction of The Priory and St Mary's Church.
In the Hitchin Railway and Ransom's Recreation Ground Conservation Area, the Midland Cottages of about 1857 were built from yellow brick with slated roofs. Matching an existing wall matters more than matching a sample board, and a red stock reads as a patch against yellow brick. We agree the brick, the mortar and the pointing on site, against the wall we are working into.
The Avenue, Highbury Road and Chiltern Road share a set of details
The council's character statement records houses in The Avenue, Highbury Road and Chiltern Road showing oriel windows, jettied upper floors, timber porches, tile hanging and matching red brick. The first house in The Avenue was completed in 1896, on land previously known as the Nettledell Estate. The first buildings in Chiltern Road came on the market in 1901.
A jetty, a tile hung gable or a timber porch is where a saving on a renovation shows for the next hundred years. Repair before replacement is the cheaper answer over that span, and it is the answer a conservation officer looks for. We price both routes so you can make the choice with the numbers in front of you.
- Room by room programme so you can stay in the house
- External rendering, repointing and masonry repair
- Kitchen and bathroom design, supply and installation
- Project management from first survey to final handover
- Snagging list agreed and worked through before handover
The GS Renovation Difference in Hitchin
We work from 3 Chauncy Avenue in Potters Bar, just under 18 miles from Hitchin, so the town falls inside the area we cover as a matter of course. That matters more on a renovation than on a single item of work, because a whole house job needs the same people through the whole programme rather than in bursts. Our founder and sole director, Abdelaaziz Saaid, has over 30 years of hands on experience, and you deal with one point of contact from the first survey to the last inspection. Where the work is structural we appoint the structural engineer and build to their calculations, and we coordinate the building control application and inspections. GS Renovation Ltd is fully insured, registered in England, company number 14611254, and rated 4.9 from 31 reviews on MyBuilder.
- Wiring, pipework and boiler condition surveyed before we price
- Honest updates if a date or a detail has to move
- Kitchen and bathroom selections planned early to hold the programme
- Photographs kept at each stage for your records
- First fix and second fix planned around a realistic decorating date
- Building control applications and inspections coordinated for you