Conservation & Heritage Issue 49 October 2025 - Flipbook - Page 30
Studio Cottage
and its regener ation
John Ashton and Rebecca Milton have come together as joint architects to tell their collective
story of Studio Cottage and its regeneration.
We should start by saying that this house was never really
meant to be lived in. Putting aside the heritage, before
these works this was just a one bedroom uninsulated
timber cottage, a thatched pottery studio, and a garage.
Of which only 1,233 sq ft was living space. As a rental,
Studio Cottage had been vacant for the best part of a
decade under ownership of Bathurst Estate. A tiny early
Arts and Crafts summer house on a substantial 1.55 acre
plot. The estate had previously submitted planning
applications to extend, dig down, and alter, each one in
turn refused.
It had been on the market for years until purchased in
2016 by Matthew Jenkins and Rebecca Milton. Matthew,
Kenneth Branagh’s producer, and Rebecca an architect
and production designer. Living in the house, pregnant
and sleeping in a wooly hat for most of the year, Rebecca
obsessively researched the original occupants of the
house, and how they once inhabited it. Built by Alfred
Powell in 1932, he and his wife were significant in the Arts
& Crafts movement, producing early Wedgwood Pottery
with a team of local craftspeople from the thatch. This
gave way to the idea of connecting the two main buildings
together via a glass link - crucially extending the internal
footprint, whilst upgrading the house as one. The idea
came from uncovering a key historical image which
demonstrated that the buildings were once connected.
Including the discovery of a former doorway and large
feature window, both were hidden behind the old
blackened cladding. Each have subsequently been opened
up and to dramatic effect.
Consultations and planning permissions were extensive.
ie. Historic England required a laboursome boardby-board analysis of the external cladding condition to
minimise undue timber replacements. We wanted to
sandblast the painted brickwork and dark cladding to
have a more natural finish - so a sample of paint was sent
to a laboratory to analyse chemical build up, thus proving
the first layer of paint had a modern chemical component
meaning it could not have been painted during the years
1930-1980. Full permissions were finally granted. In 2019,
Matthew and Rebecca sold the house and the dream to
its current owner / client who themselves passionately
progressed the project to completion with their own
architect John Ashton of Ashton Architecture.
Ashton Architecture exclusively led the next chapter on
this, with the development and construction of the
project to completion, and continue to work with the
client on the site. Ashton drew together a highly skilled
team of crafts people to take on and complete this labour
of love. This phase had its own inherent challenges.
Working through Covid, the barn was developed first,
providing the site with essential ancillary accommodation
and live work space. This was an opportunity for the
client to create something highly energy efficient and
All images courtesy of Agnese Sanvito
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