Case study · House · Quenby Combe

Weir Cottage

A mill-worker's cottage from the 1790s on the Quenby weir, repaired with lime and opened to the water with a larch kitchen and a concrete plinth that steps down to the pool.

Location: Quenby Combe
Typology: House, extension
Completed: March 2025
Floor area: 142 m²
Contract value: £486,000
Builder: Halsall & Quist

Weir Cottage at dusk from the lane: the stone gable, the lit larch kitchen and the plinth — From the lane, an hour after sunsetPhoto placeholder

Drawings

The same building, three ways.

Plan Section Axonometric

Ground floor plan of Weir Cottage: snug and sitting room in the stone cottage, kitchen, dining and boot room in the new extension, terrace and weir pool to the east — Ground floor plan

Section A–A through Weir Cottage: stone walls, new wood-fibre insulation, limecrete floor, the kitchen with its rooflight and the plinth stepping to the weir pool — Section A–A

Axonometric of Weir Cottage from the south-east with the stone cottage, larch kitchen, concrete plinth and the mill weir — Axonometric, south-east

Swipe sideways to pan the drawing →

ProjectWeir Cottage

DrawingGround floor planSection A–AAxonometric, south-east

Scale1:1001:100Not to scale

SheetPL-131 / 01PL-131 / 02PL-131 / 03

Existing fabric
New work
Section line

PlanThe cottage keeps its two rooms. The kitchen moves into the larch extension, which wraps the east wall and opens to the terrace.

SectionThe extension sits well below the cottage eaves, so the old gable still reads from the lane.

AxonometricThe plinth is the threshold between garden and weir: three treads, a bench and nothing else.

The brief

Keep the cottage, find the river.

Brief from Anna and Joe Ferrand, who bought the cottage in 2022 with the roof open to the sky.

The cottage had turned its back on the water. Its only door faced the lane and its kitchen was a lean-to by the coal shed. The owners wanted to cook, eat and sit where they could hear the weir, without losing the two small rooms that made them buy it.

We repaired the stone with hot lime, insulated the roof with wood fibre and laid a limecrete floor so the walls could breathe. The new kitchen is a larch frame on its own footings, kept low and set back so the gable still leads. Outside, a cast concrete plinth gives the garden an edge and a way down to the water.

heating demand after works: −68%
air changes at 50 Pa: 1.9
kgCO₂e/m², upfront carbon: 290

Inside the larch kitchen: island under the rooflight, the glazed wall and the weir beyond — Kitchen, looking east to the weirPhoto placeholder

We asked for a kitchen. We got a room where the river comes in.
Joe Ferrand, client

Credits

Who built it with us.

Architect: Plinth Architects: Hester Quaile, Ruth Amberley
Structure: Callow Engineering
Builder: Halsall & Quist
Stonework: Quenby Lime Works
Concrete: Tarn Precast
Photography: Your photographer here

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