Proposed Dog Training Barn, Yatton Court, Beaford, Devon - Heritage Impact Assessment

This report presents the results of a heritage impact assessment that was carried out by South West Archaeology Ltd. (SWARCH) for a commercial development at Proposed Dog Training Barn, Yatton Court, Beaford, Devon. Yatton Court sits within a contemporary pocket landscape, with two formal drives, a walled kitchen garden, woodland, paddocks, and pleasure lawns. The distinctly polite gentry character of the immediate setting of the house and the scale of some of the landscaping indicates a potentially more complex multi-phase narrative to the site than has previously been appreciated. The house sits on a larger building platform with an unfinished basement façade and blocked openings to the east of the current service wing. The site of the proposed development is located on the edge of this pocket landscape, adjacent to a derelict (potentially unfinished) tree-lined carriage drive, and it is therefore within the setting of Yatton Court. The proposed development is positioned to ensure the retention of this historic avenue of trees, and this feature will screen and soften the proposed development significantly from the surrounding landscape. The site is positioned in close proximity to the Grade II* Listed Parsonage Farm and the Grade II Listed Yatton Court, and the proposed development will appear within some views of these assets whilst both assets will have glimpses/views of the proposed development from their immediate settings. The setting of Parsonage Farm is limited to its immediate farmyard and buildings, and its significance and value is largely unrelated to this setting due to it having been Listed primarily for its age and for its architectural features. The proposed development is therefore not considered to have any significant impact upon Parsonage Farm (negligible Impact). The setting of Yatton Court is more intrinsic to the value of the Grade II Listed Yatton Court as it clearly defines the status of the building. The proposed development is located on the edge of this setting, however it is sensitively positioned within this setting as it does not remove any historic landscape features or planting nor does it significantly intrude upon any designed views. The proposed development is therefore considered to have a negligible to negative/minor impact on Yatton Court. With this in mind, the overall impact of the proposed development can be assessed as negligible. The impact of the proposed development on any buried archaeological resource would be permanent and irreversible, however this is thought to be of low potential and this could be mitigated through an appropriate programme of archaeological monitoring and recording.