Westwick Cottage is Grade II* listed and widely acknowledged to be one of the oldest, continually inhabited houses in the United Kingdom. An aisled hall house, the house has been at times, sub-divided into cottages, although works by the previous owners consolidated the house in the 1950’s. The house itself has been the cause of much study, with timbers from the earliest part of the house having been felled (dated by dendrochronological analysis) between 1184 and 1219.
The history of the property is well documented and in 1828 there is reference to a claim on the property to Edward Fearnly Whittingstall and Simeon Child. The Fearnly Whittingstalls were originally brewers from Watford, who later ran a bank in Hemel Hempstead. And the celebrity chef of the same name is directly descended from this branch of the family.
The property was previously occupied by Sheila Macqueen MBE VMH, one of the foremost flower arrangers of her day. Mrs Macqueen is noted not only for providing flowers to Mrs Wallis Simpson in fashionable London in the late 1930’s, but more importantly, being responsible for the flower arrangements in Westminster Abbey for the Queen’s wedding and also assisting at the Queen’s Coronation.
The property was in a poor state of repair and the present owner refurbished it to become his family residence. The remedial works involve re-doing repairs that had been poorly carried out as well as strengthening the structure and general refurbishment.
David French Partnership acted as full Designers and Structural Engineers as well as Project Managers. DFP prepared scheme drawings and schedules of works and delat with obtaining Listed Building Consent for the works.

The pub was a Grade 2 listed building dating back to C16 or early C17 formed from timber frame with steep thatched roof.
The pub caught fire and was burnt out to just above first floor level. The pub was restored using oak framings matching the original details as far as possible. To carry out the restoration David French Partnership sifted through the ashes to locate parts of the original structural frame to identify how connections were made and then to reproduce the original connections as far as possible.

The pub was a Grade 2 listed building dating back to the C15 which was burnt out to first floor level.
As part of the restoration works the pub was stripped back, lifting floors etc. and remnants of a much earlier building were located dating back to C11 or C12. These remnants were carefully preserved below the replaced floor structure.
The restoration used a mixture of traditional softwood timber and oak framings. By careful investigation of the burnt trusses the construction details were reproduced as closely as possible.
While doing the repairs we also used some innovative design to enable a timber post to be omitted at ground floor opening up one of the bar areas.

The Paper Trail project is an industrial ‘exploration’ centre built around an historic, paper mill. It offers public access into the heart of what was a real working environment and is complemented by an active business & industrial enterprise hub. The Frogmore Mill site is unique in the fact that it is the home of the world’s first ever commercial working paper machine and can be claimed to be at the very heart of the communications revolution. It was at Frogmore that the world’s first machine for making a continuous roll of paper was built (the birth of paper’s industrial revolution).

The primary objective of The Paper Trail is to conserve and restore Frogmore as a working paper mill using a ‘Fourdrinier’ paper machine which dates back to 1895 and to make this unique industrial heritage accessible to the public. Apsley Paper Trail wanted to convert two storage sheds dating back to the early 1900’s, together with the already partly upgraded skill site/printers workshop, into a visitor centre.

The framework of one shed was composed entirely of timber with a double pitch roof and a central valley. Drainage problems with the central valley had been significant and the timber structure beneath this valley shows considerable water damage. Many areas of the timber frame were either damaged by impact or from decay requiring a lot of refurbishment.

The second shed had a single pitch steel trussed roof supported on a steel framework. The steel roof structure is supported on a wooden framed wall structure. Both sheds were covered externally by corrugated iron sheeting with some parts of the roofing having asbestos cement sheeting. The objective of the conversion was to create a weatherproof space capable of all-year round use in which a variety of internal spaces can be constructed for the display of working papermaking, printing equipment and heritage objects as well as providing visitor facilities including catering and toilets.