Bere Court, Pangbourne

Overview

Bere Court is a large Grade I listed house on the outskirts of Pangbourne, Reading. There has been some occupation of the site since at least the 13th century of a monastic use by the Abbots of Reading Abbey. For several centuries, Bere Court had an inherent monastic and spiritual value for its links with the Abbots. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the building evolved into a new secular but still high-status country house. Common chapters of history such as 18th-century architectural fashions and the 19th-century pursuit of comfort also contribute to the later historical value of Bere Court.

Bere Court had though been severely neglected for some time when the current owner purchased the site and a serious amount of water ingress over a long period of time had caused the roofs to fail both in terms of weathertightness but then also sever decay to the major roof bearing structure.

After a long programme of roof restoration the external envelope and the interior are now being tackled, as with many buildings of this scale this started with the removal of the white asbestos lagging around the early heating pipe system before any works could be started and this entailed lifting half of the ground floor structure, this revealed a blocked cellar staircase from a previous incarnation of the overall footprint.

The process of dealing with a Grade I listed building of this nature has involved a series of Listed Building Consent applications for various packages of works, new windows, alterations to form a larger kitchen, re-ordering the bedrooms to create suited rooms, changes to the roof, new underfloor limecrete heating as some of the various applications.

We are now embarking on the major M&E installation starting with a complete new boiler system and new pipework and wiring throughout the property.