Church Quarters, Worle

Church Quarters is a conservation-sensitive restoration and residential development on Church Road in Worle, Weston-super-Mare, built around a local landmark building. EJ McGrath acted as main contractor, extending and converting the existing house into three homes, converting the detached coach house into a further home and building a new bungalow to the rear to create five dwellings in total. We self-delivered the works from enabling and groundworks through to handover.

The brief

The existing house, a former family-run GP surgery, had fallen into disrepair and needed sensitive repair rather than replacement. Full planning permission covered renovation and subdivision of the main house together with new homes to the rear. The scheme had to satisfy the conservation requirements of Historic England and North Somerset Council while meeting current building regulations.

What we did

• Site clearance, ground investigation and regrading of site levels, with temporary welfare, power and site security established
• Extension and conversion of the existing house into three self-contained dwellings, including rebuilding the three front bays to the structural engineer’s design
• Conversion of the former coach house into a further self-contained dwelling
• Construction of a new-build bungalow to the rear, from foundations through to completion
• New private below-ground foul and surface-water drainage with soakaways serving each property
• New utility connections and street naming and numbering

A sensitive, constrained site

The main building carried elements of structural instability that had to be stabilised as part of the restoration, and its original character was retained using traditional materials agreed with the conservation officers. The site also supported protected bats, so the works followed the ecologist’s method statement under a licensed mitigation strategy, with ecological supervision where required.

The outcome

Church Quarters delivered five completed homes on a restored landmark site, built to current building regulations and backed by a 10-year structural warranty. Working as main contractor, EJ McGrath took the development from a vacant, deteriorating building through to a finished terrace, coach house and new dwelling ready for occupation.