Master’s House and St Michael’s Chapel, Saltisford, Warwick
A Homely Future for St Michael’s Place
The St Michael’s Place regeneration project which is being led and part funded by Warwick District Council in partnership with the West Midlands Historic Buildings Trust will see the former house and chapel carefully and sympathetically converted for residential use.
Funding of up to £138,838 received from players of The National Lottery will support the development of detailed designs and a historic interpretation programme for the Grade II* listed Master’s House and St Michael’s Chapel in Saltisford with a further £40,000 contribution from Historic England earmarked to facilitate specialist archaeological investigations on the site.
Interior of the Master’s House
St Michael’s Chapel
This potential project site contains two (15th / 16th century) grade II* listed buildings at risk on the site of a medieval leper hospital (scheduled ancient monument) and has featured on every edition of the Historic England Heritage at Risk Register.
The present focus of the hospital complex is formed by the upstanding chapel, a single cell stone building of 15th century date, and a late 15th or early 16th century timber-framed building, known as the Master’s House, situated to the north of the chapel. Although partially rebuilt, the buildings are contemporary with the later medieval development of the site. The standing buildings are considered to overlie the remains of earlier medieval hospital buildings which extend across the whole of the site.
The first actual reference to the leper hospital is in 1275, but by 1540 it was said to be `much in ruin’. By 1545 it was leased to a layman, Richard Fisher, who distributed alms to the poor and gave lodging to four poor men. The last priest recorded as warden took office in 1557. The Chapel and Master’s house were converted to cottages in the 17th-18th centuries and finally became uninhabitable by the mid-20th century.
Project Development
A Viability Appraisal was commissioned by the West Midlands Historic Buildings Trust in association with Warwick District Council, by a grant from the Architectural Heritage Fund, in 2018 to investigate the options to secure a future for the St Michael’s Chapel & Master’s House buildings.
St Michael's Terrace in 1950s
Willow Court Farmhouse, Droitwich
Safe as Houses
Willow Court Farmhouse will be ‘Safe as Houses’ thanks for a £2.3 million grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund awarded in Spring 2024. Working in partnership with Wychavon District Council the farmhouse will be sympathetically restored and converted into six affordable flats for rent.
Previously in March 2020 The Worcestershire Building Preservation Trust was awarded development funding of £259,400 by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to help secure the future of the Willow Court Farmhouse and progress our plans to apply for a full National Lottery grant in 2023. We are working together in a new partnership with Wychavon District Council and Platform Housing Group to rescue this empty Grade II listed building. The farmhouse, which has not been lived in for decades, is in a very poor condition, so the first stage of the project was to make the site secure and develop detailed plans to save the building.
As part of the project we are offering carpentry apprenticeships to ex-military veterans to help them acquire new skills. We will be holding a series of community events and activities which will help unlock the lost history of the farm and surrounding land. We will also be creating a digital legacy for the building so that future generations can see a creation of what the building would have looked like.
History of Willow Court Farmhouse
Willow Court farmhouse was historically know as Boycott Farm and this name first appears in documents as early as 1456. A farmhouse on the current site appears to have been built in the later 16th century, represented by a surviving timber framed element tucked away at the rear of the house complete with star shaped brick chimney stacks. We hope to discover more about this early structure during the project. In the 18th century the old farmhouse was enlarged with the addition of a new brick extension which forms the main frontage of the house we can see today.
We shall be exploring the history of the farm and the people who lived and worked there as the restoration work proceeds.
Willow Court Farmhouse Memories Project
Our aim is to create a picture of Willow Court (formerly Boycot) Farm and the surrounding area (Westlands and Chawson) before and after the building of the bypass and housing estates on the surrounding farmland land.
We want to gather stories from different perspectives:
- Those who lived in, visited, played near or recall in anyway Boycot and Chawson farms
- Those involved in decision-making around the creation of the estates
- Those involved in the construction of the roads, houses, community buildings and the school
- Those who were the first to move to the estates from Birmingham and elsewhere
- Those who have lived or worked on either estate for many years, including second or third generation families
If you or anyone you know might be interested in sharing their stories of Boycot and Westlands, please get in touch by emailing us at: poppy@wmhbt.org.uk
