RESTORATION work has now commenced on number 1 Church Lane, also known as Foulston’s House, a Grade II listed period building constructed in 1830 as a residence.

The building occupies a prominent location next to St Eustachius’ Parish Church, Tavistock. It will be the first privately owned building of historic and architectural merit to undergo conservation work as part of the Tavistock Townscape Heritage Initiative (TTHI), which benefits from a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of nearly £1-million.

The TTHI is a regeneration programme involving the restoration of public and privately-owned buildings of historic merit, the enhancement of specific public realm areas and complementary activities to raise awareness of the town’s heritage and promote the use of traditional conservation skills.

It was established following eight years hard work by a partnership of local councils, businesses and community groups, co-ordinated by Tavistock Heritage with the town council as the accountable body. The TTHI is also supported financially by Tavistock Town Council, West Devon Borough Council, Devon County Council, the Greater Dartmoor LEAF and private property owners.

The TTHI scheme for 1 Church Lane has been prepared by project architect Simon Crosbie of Le Page Architects, specialists in conservation schemes for historic buildings, who has recently supervised the repairs carried out on the Butchers’ Hall adjacent to the pannier market.

Foulston’s House was partly designed by John Foulston (1772-1841), a well-known English architect who was undertaking other work in Tavistock at around that time for the Duke of Bedford and designed many iconic buildings throughout the South West region.

The restoration of the building will involve a mixture of architectural reinstatement and repairs to the external ‘envelope’ of the building to make it structurally sound and weatherproof.

The main contractor for the project is Obedair, based in Plymouth. Carl Heslop, managing director, said: ‘Obedair are extremely proud to be involved with such a historic building so prominent in Tavistock. We look forward to restoring it to its former glory and working closely with everyone within the Tavistock community.’

The range of work includes structural repairs to roof timbers, repairs to parapet walls and gutters, removal of a modern chimney, renewing the slates, and refurbishment of rainwater gutters and downpipes. The limited discharge of rainwater from the front parapet gutter, which has resulted in consequent structural damage to the front elevation, will be addressed by the provision of two additional internal rainwater pipes.

All windows and external doors are to be restored, including the reinstatement of windows where openings have been blocked up. The existing lime mortar render will be sensitively cleaned off and defective areas hacked off and reinstated using a mix that closely matches the original as determined by laboratory analysis. Any repointing work will also be carried out using appropriate lime render mortar.

Simon Crosbie and Damon Pearce, directors of Le Page Architects, said: ‘We are immensely proud to be again involved in a TTHI scheme that will restore and ultimately save this precious fabric of the town. The building has lots of challenges due to its condition, but we are confident the highly experienced team will overcome them.’

One of the principal aims of the TTHI is to bring vacant floor space back into productive use and following completion of the enveloping works it is the intention for the restored building to be let for commercial purposes.

Martin Searle, Townscape Heritage Initiative project manager, said: ‘I’m really pleased to think that the first third-party project has started because it’s a significant milestone for the Townscape Heritage Initiative.’

Tavistock Mayor, Councillor Mandy Ewings, said: ‘I am delighted that restoration work is going to be carried out on a much loved and prominent building in the centre of Tavistock. For too long it has looked neglected and unkempt. The work which is going to be carried out will restore the outside of the building to its former glory.’