Heritage

Millard Consulting has wide experience in the provision of services for the repair and refurbishment of historic and listed buildings.

Millard Consulting has significant heritage experience, with over 20 significant projects in historic environments. Many of these projects were for adaptive re-use and a number of these Listed Buildings included visitor facilities.

Millard can provide design services, including temporary works, for a wide variety of heritage projects. In-house expertise includes specialist masonry repair advice.

See below for:

case studies
examples of previous projects

Heritage summary

	Experience of design in Historic Environments	Experience of design of Visitor facilities within listed structures	Experience of adaptive reuse of Historic Buildings	Enterprise facilities (non-historic)	High quality (non-historic environment)
Abbey Church, Coupar Angus	l	l	l
Auchterarder Town Hall (Aytoun Hall and Girnal House)	l	l	l
BeWILDerwood				l
Cafe Ritazza				l
Culham Court	l
Dropmore Park	l
Felixstowe South Seafront	l
Glenskirlie House Hotel				l
Gowrie House	l		l
22 Health centres					l
Hyde Park Gate	l		l
Kidderminster ACAD					l
Megginch Castle	l
Lakenham Churchyard	l
Nairn Hospital	l		l		l
Newtyle Primary School					l
Norwich Castle Mound	l
Open Youth Venue	l	l	l
Perthshire Visitor Centre				l	l
Queen Mother's gates, Glamis Castle	l	l
Romeyns Court	l
Rosehall House and walled garden	l		l
Spaces for Sport				l	l
St. Vigeans Parish Church	l
Taplow Court	l		l
Webster Theatre	l	l	l
Whitlingham Hospital	l		l

Taplow Court

Grade II Listed, Tudor style, mansion

Taplow Court, a mid 19th century mansion set high above the Thames near Maidenhead, is the home of SGI-UK, a lay Buddhist society.

SGI-UK is part of a world-wide network of organisations in over 190 countries that aims to contribute to a more peaceful and harmonious world through educational and cultural activities.

Millard Consulting provided structural design for the recent refurbishment of this Grade II Listed, Tudor style, mansion. Structural work included installation of lift shaft and the formation of openings for service voids associated with kitchen and bathroom facilities.

Felixstowe South Seafront

Felixstowe South Seafront - Millard Consulting has carried out flood risk work and infrastructure design on a seafront residential and leisure development at Felixstowe.

Bloor Homes, in partnership with Suffolk Coastal District Council, is implementing the scheme on the South Beach seafront, regenerating an area which has declined in recent years. The proposal, featuring 158 dwellings, leisure park, and the refurbishment of the existing Martello Tower, dating from 1804. This development is located in an area which was inundated during the 1953 East Coast floods. The current Shoreline Management Plan policy for the seafront defences is “hold the line”, and these defences are currently being improved. Nevertheless the area remains susceptible to breaching of the seafront defences, and from “back door” flooding caused by overtopping of defences at the Felixstowe Port area and River Orwell estuary.

The design includes the preservation and reuse of one of the famous Napoleonic Martello Towers, a Scheduled Ancient Monument and Listed Building.

The tower forms the main focus for the central area of the park area in the development. The height and scale of the associated housing has been reduced, giving the Tower a much more prominent position. There will be an open area around the Tower, giving it a much-improved setting. The former Tower moat will be recreated, and the Observer Corps bunker mound will be incorporated and preserved as recommended by English Heritage. The tower will be repaired and refurbished, as recommended by English Heritage.

Millard Consulting carried out an analysis of the flood risk to the site under today’s conditions and future conditions, when sea levels are expected to be higher as a result of climate change. The analysis included calculations relating to the determination of flood levels, the stability of seawall structures, the statistical probability of defence failure, and the route and speed of approach of possible floods. Millard Consulting prepared a mitigation strategy involving the determination of safe minimum floor levels, the management of risk, and the identification of escape routes and procedures.

Millard Consulting also carried out other preplanning work including a transport assessment. Following the completion of the infrastructure designs the construction phase is ready to commence.

Dropmore Park, Buckinghamshire

Grade II* Listed

Introduction

Lord Grenville, Prime Minister to King George III bought Dropmore in 1792, when there was only a labourers' cottage on the property and built the existing house.

The house was refurbished to a very high standard by Harold James Partnership, now part of Millard Consulting in 1987. Sadly, a fire in 1990, completely destroyed the east end of the property.

Scope

Millard Consulting undertook some stabilising works in 1991. Since then the house has remained in a state of disrepair until purchased by the present owner.

The current project comprises the complete refurbishment of the main house, dairy and stable courtyard under the stewardship of the English Heritage.

Auchterarder Town Hall (Aytoun Hall and Girnal House)

Grade B Listed refurbishment and adaptive re-use

The refurbishment of the Auchterarder Town Hall (Aytoun Hall and Girnal House) is being carried out in conjunction with Perth and Kinross Council. Aytoun Hall and Girnal House are both Grade B Listed structures.

This adaptive design is to develop an under utilised, spatially disjointed, building complex; to provide a variety of new multi-functional areas.

Megginch Castle

Grade B Listed

Megginch Castle – Structural advice regarding stonework and castellation repair to B Listed, 17th century castle.

Millard Consulting has provided advice for works, including:

Parapet / Battlements – Structural inspection of the battlements (18th century part of the castle), from both ground and roof level, and report on condition of the render, lean and construction of the merlons.
Kitchen Roof – Structural appraisal of timber roof structure over the kitchen area, with recommendations for repair, prior to re-roofing contract (19th century).
Ballroom – Wall condition survey of ballroom walls, including repair specification. Walls constructed in hand made brick and lime mortar (late 18th or early 19th century).
Courtyard Building – Structural appraisal, and design and detailing of remedial works. The works involved reconstruction of handmade brickwork walls (19th century).
Drier Building - Structural inspection and advice for the repair and strengthening of the existing roof structure to facilitate retiling of the roof.

Rosehall House and walled garden

19th century, Grade B Listed, 2-storey classical mansion

Rosehall House and walled garden – is a 19th century, grade B Listed, 2-storey 7-bay classical mansion with projecting 2-storey and single storey rear wings.

Millard Consulting has carried out preliminary design work, including a structural survey and site drainage testing to adapt the house and associated coach house into residential units.

St. Vigeans Parish Church

Structural advice

St. Vigeans Parish Church – is a beautiful 12th century church, part of The Old Arbroath Abbey.

Millard Consulting provided structural advice for localised strengthening of roof structure and stone roof to bell tower staircase roof.

Romeyns Court, Great Milton

Grade II Listed prebendal manor-house

Romeyns Court – Romeyn's Court is one of the two prebendal manor-houses in the village of Great Milton. Now Grade II Listed, Romeyn's Court was occupied in Henry VIII's reign. Even in 1650, it was described as an ancient manor-house, consisting of nine, bays and eleven rooms in addition to garrets, pantry and milkhouse.

Millard Consulting provided structural design for temporary works associated with the support of a large, two storey, masonry chimney.

Queen Mother's gates, Glamis Castle

Queen Mother’s Memorial Fund and

Five miles from Forfar, in the fertile valley of Strathmore, is the quaint village of Glamis. Glamis is set in the rolling hills of Angus, approximately 20km from the North Sea, in an area of considerable ancient history. Whilst the village is home to a curious old stone, said to be a monument to King Malcolm II, and some attractive eighteenth-century cottages, its most notable attribute is the grandeur of Glamis Castle.

Glamis is the site for the new Queen Mother’s gates. The project was developed in a partnership between the Queen Mother’s Memorial Fund for Scotland and Strathmore Estates. The gates themselves were funded by public donations from Scotland and further afield. The new gates have re-established a link between the village, the castle and the original avenue running straight from the castle entrance south into the edge of Glamis village which has been diverted at various times in history and the trees allowed to grow, cutting off the village from the castle. The gates now re-establish this link with the old avenue, forming a new entrance to the castle. The new entrance gates, with the surrounding trees, form an amphitheatre providing a new public space.

Gate designer was Lachlan Stewart, from Anta and the Architects, James F Stephen, from Glamis. Millard Consulting is delighted to have provided structural and infrastructure design for this celebration of the Queen Mother’s life.

This is the third project that has been delivered by Millard Consulting at Glamis; having helped in the delivery of the fountain in the Italian Garden and Princess Margaret’s memorial.

Abbey Church, Coupar Angus

Adaptive reuse of historic church

Abbey Church, Coupar Angus – Structural scheme for the refurbishment and adaptive reuse of this historic church, sited immediately to the north of the former, 13th century, Abbey site.

The project includes a Hall of Friendship, café area and multi-functional space, with mezzanine worship area over.

Whitlingham Hospital

Grade II Listed conversion to residential accommodation

Whitlingham Hospital - is a Grade II Listed conversion to residential accommodation. Millard Consulting provided structural design for the five storey adaptive development, to luxury apartments, (with undercroft parking) within the old Whitlingham hospital.

Millard carried out structural surveys of existing hospital buildings and the surrounding structures. They also advised the client regarding demolition, modifications and refurbishment for conversion to luxury apartments sympathetic to the existing building.

A number of challenges were faced, including minimisation of structural floor depths to maximise living space, using a hybrid structural steel and timber design. The foundation design was particularly challenging, due to hidden wells, basements and rainwater storage pits. The maintenance of structural stability whilst providing large openings, formed in existing buttressed masonry walls, required careful planning and design. The intricate architectural roof requirements demanded a complimentary design to provide a suitable habitable space.

Lakenham Churchyard, St. John Baptist Church

Grade II Listed and in a Conservation Area

Lakenham Churchyard, St. John Baptist Church – Grade II Listed and in a Conservation Area, the graveyard was in danger of structural instability, with associated risk to graves.

The church, 13 / 14th century, is significant, as a rare “high place” in Norfolk. Millard Consulting provided investigation and remedial work proposals for slope stability and wall repairs.