DEVELOPING up to 120 homes near Wolfeton House would be highly damaging to the local landscape – according to a key council witness.

Chartered landscape architect, Peter Radmall, told the inquiry into West Dorset District Council's refusal of an outline application for a site off Westleaze, Charminster that when considering damage to the landscape alone the appeal should be dismissed.

He said the site was an important one for the local landscape – marking a transition between the river valley and heath, with wider views to and from important sites such as Poundbury hillfort and Wolfeton House, a listed building. It also offered a visual and physical separation between Charminster and Dorchester.

He said building up to 120 homes on what are currently farm fields would also be damaging to the setting of the public right of way which crosses the site, a section of the Cerne Valley Trail.

The expert said that the whole site scored highly for scenic quality and historic significance and although a site of a medieval village in the field would be kept as an open space three quarters of the entire site was likely to be built on – changing the area forever.

Mr Radmall said residents in Westleaze, roads off Westleaze and some properties in East Hill, would be affected directly by the development with the new access resulting in around half of the existing mature hedge being removed. Nearby residents could expect new home directly opposite them stopping their views across open fields. He estimated that 40 per cent of the housing blocks on the site were likely to be 2.5 storeys tall.

“Were landscape the only consideration this appeal should be dismissed,” he said.

'Landscape would be ruined'

CONSERVATION advisor for the district council, David Haigh, said the setting of Wolfeton House in the landscape would be ruined by having the proposed new homes so close. He said, although unassuming, the fields were important to the context of the building. Mr Haigh said area had been farmed from the bronze age – with evidence of ancient field boundaries and what appeared to be enclosures in the area.

“What I am emphasising is that there is a landscape of considerable antiquity here,” he said, telling the inquiry that to build in the area would ruin what he described as the ‘cumulative relationship’ between the landscape, the historic buildings in and around Wolfeton and the Charminster conservation area.

He said that building on what is known locally as ‘the strawberry field’ would cause harm to the conservation area: “part of the significance of the historic landscape area comes from its setting,” he said.

Mr Haigh said he did not believe that any landscape mitigation measures would be able to mask what he said amounted to: “permanent and irreversible harm caused by this application.”

The company behind the development proposals have argued that landscaping could mitigate the views of the new houses and argue that the harm, if there is any, would be acceptable given the benefits of the additional homes for the area, more than a third of them ‘affordable.’

'Building could set a precedent'

ARCHITECTURAL historian, Roger White, had warned that allowing homes to be built close to the Grade 1 listed Wolfeton House could set a precedent for additional houses in the area.

He has claimed that it would be almost impossible to shield the property from the proposed 120 homes which, if built, would affect the setting of Wolfeton forever.

He warned that it could eventually put the future of the historic house at risk.

Dr White said the house was built in phases, starting at the end of the 15th century by Sir John Trenchard and his son, Thomas.

Dr White, who lives in Sherborne, said the Grade 2 listed Riding School, a few yards to the north of the main house, was built later and could have been modelled on one built at St James’s Palace, making it, possibly, the oldest surviving structure of its type in the country.

“Wolfeton is recognised by competent authorities as an exceptionally significant building not only within the boundaries of Dorset but nationally. Its charm, its atmosphere and its magic are unquantifiable and in the eye of the beholder, but its outstanding architectural importance is incontrovertible,” said Mr White.