A FIRE-DAMAGED thatched cottage at Poxwell is to be re-built.
Dorset Council is considering a like-for-like planning application for the Grade two listed building from owner Karen Reeves.
Photographs with the application show the full extent of the disastrous blaze with part of the roof collapsed, the lounge, kitchen and two bedrooms almost totally destroyed and the bathroom, in a rear extension to the original building, still standing although smoke and water damaged.
Once completed agents for the owner say the semi-detached Honeysuckle Cottage should look much as it did before the fire on October 22 last year.
Specialists contractors will have to be brought in to carry out the work with the remains of the structure being assessed by specialists to see what, if anything, can be saved.
“It is the intention to restore the property back to its pre-loss condition on a like-for-like basis wherever possible and practical, to preserve the historic or replicate the original materials,” said a statement to the council from agents Smithers Purslow.
Both the roof timbers and the thatched roofs were destroyed by the fire which, at its peak, was tackled by around 60 fire-fighters from five Dorset fire stations and led to the closure of the A353.
The building dates back to 1843 and is within the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is thought to have once been linked to nearby Poxwell House, which itself goes back to the 1600s and was once part of the Cerne Abbey Estate.
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