The Rolvenden Historical Settlement Study
By Dr Brendan Chester-Kadwell
The Rolvenden Historical Settlement Study is a community-based project designed to record and explore the historical origins and subsequent development of contemporary settlement - presenting the findings in an understandable form that can help the community to influence future development.
Rolvenden’s Settlement Pattern and Sense of Place
Rolvenden is historically a landscape of dispersed settlement of farmsteads set in their own fields and lone homesteads. Between the seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries hamlets grew up, first at Rolvenden Street and subsequently at Rolvenden Layne. By the time of the tithe survey of 1839 the former had become a village. Little further development occurred in the parish until, following the Second World War, Rolvenden Street became a service centre, which has more than doubled in size over the intervening sixty years.
Beyond the nucleated settlement the parish of Rolvenden retains its pattern of dispersed settlement. These areas of dispersed settlement are less well understood and the importance of the study is the light that it throws upon them. It records changes in settlement form over the last two hundred years, analysing development in the parish since 1945 and assessing its impact on the earlier settlement form and character. The survey highlights key issues contributing to Rolvenden’s local building design, important for understanding both settlement form and character, as a way of helping to ensure that future buildings maintain high design standards.
A Community Effort
Many parishioners were involved in the project, taking part in the original survey or lending their support in other ways. In May, the children of Rolvenden Primary School shared their researches into the history of the great houses of Rolvenden with the community. This was a great introduction to an early evening gathering when members of the parish came together to hear about some of the early ‘discoveries’ to come out of the survey.
A key aim of the survey is to record the significance of Rolvenden’s historical environment for consideration in future development schemes. The study is providing significant support to the writing of the Neighbourhood Development Plan and in November a joint workshop was held in the parish about the study’s findings and how these might inform the development plan itself.
Some Significant Findings
An aim of the project was to measure what changes had occurred since the end of the Second World War in the areas of dispersed settlement. Although development has been considerably less in volume than in the village centres, relatively it has been high. Since 1945 development of all types (including new dwellings, major agricultural buildings, conversions of redundant farm buildings to dwellings and significant extensions to historical dwellings) accounts for over fifty per cent of the existing built environment. How this breaks down is illustrated in (Fig 1).
This may seem surprising given the bias in planning policy against development outside areas of designated nuclear settlement. However, the total number of buildings in these areas is relatively small (approximately 250 were accounted for in the survey) and over a sixty-year period it only takes permission for the building, rebuilding or conversion of a few buildings a year to achieve this. The lesson is clear, that at this rate of development the pre-1945 stock of buildings (what might be commonly considered the historical buildings) will comprise an increasingly smaller element of the built environment.
This is bound to have an effect on the form and character of the rural landscape in Rolvenden.
Conclusions
These are just some of the complex conclusions established during the course of the study. However, they are indicative of the changes occurring in what might, superficially, appear to be an area relatively untouched by the building boom of the post-war period. The study does not conclude that development in such areas is a bad thing – in fact quite the reverse. It is recognized that development is necessary to maintain (or re-establish) sustainable rural communities. The issues are about what development, where, how much, and whether traditional buildings styles are to be maintained. Simply, how development can be encouraged without radically changing the character of an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Additionally, dwellings in the dispersed areas have become larger, with less choice or opportunities for those on smaller incomes or needing smaller properties. There are still some working farmsteads, but these are quite likely to operate out of new yards associated with bungalows built under agricultural occupancy conditions rather than from historical farmstead sites; the latter are now frequently purely residential.