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Project	Potter Hill
Location	North Yorkshire
Photographer	Jim Varney
Completion	August 2016
Sector	Conservation & Heritage Country House
Awards	Private House, North Yorkshire Best Individual New Home (winner) 2018 Regional LABC Building Excellence Awards (North and East Yorkshire Region) Best Individual New Home (finalist) 2018 National LABC Building Excellence Awards Highly Commended 2018 National Natural Stone Awards See all our awards

Elegant Georgian country house design in the Howardian Hills

A distinguished new house, built in Georgian style, sits within the mature landscape of the Howardian Hills. The building replaced a previous house that was in a very poor state of repair. The new house has received significant local and regional praise for being an elegant country house befitting its setting.

The house is designed over two storeys (with some second-floor loft storage) and laid out around a central hall and staircase, above which sits a central lantern light. Ground-floor accommodation includes a study, dining room, sitting room, kitchen, snug, WC/cloakroom, and rear entrance hall. The first floor comprises a master bedroom with attendant dressing rooms and en-suite, together with four further bedrooms—two with individual en-suites and two sharing an en-suite. The new house is orientated on a northwest-southeast axis, with its footprint offset from that of the demolished property. This offset footprint maximises views from the property across the applicant's land, especially towards a series of lakes to the south.

The house features four distinct elevations. The 'front' (northwest) entrance serves as the formal entrance to the property, centred on a double front door and stone portico supported by stone columns, flanked by two full-height stone arched bay windows.

The southwest and southeast elevations are both grand formal elevations, providing views from the main sitting room, kitchen, and master bedroom across the gardens to the woodland and lakes beyond. Sash windows on the southwest elevation feature cut stone surrounds, with two full-height windows to the sitting room flanking full-height French doors and a focal window above, detailed with cut stone surround and broken pediment.

The southeast elevation includes a central ground-floor arched bay that provides a balcony to French doors at first-floor level (from the master bedroom dressing room). The northeast elevation looks towards the service courtyard and is much simpler in style than the other elevations, clearly differentiating it as the rear/service elevation.

The proposed building, whilst clearly a grand property, has minimal impact on the surrounding landscape. Views of the house are softened by mature trees in the immediate landscape, which either screen the building when viewed from a distance or frame focal views along the approach up the long private driveway.

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