Historic Building Survey

CFA completed a comprehensive building survey on behalf of the Scottish Historical Buildings Trust as a preliminary stage of works prior to the refurbishment of Riddle’s Court, a former merchant’s house. It has architectural features from all phases of its 400-year history, including a 16th-century painted tempera ceiling, 17th-century plaster ceilings and fireplaces, a heraldic ceiling from the 19th century, and architectural interventions from the 1960s. In addition to a ground penetrating radar survey and dendrochronology work, CFA’s Mike Cressey and the late Charles McKean, one of Scotland’s most respected Architectural Historians, developed a detailed phase-development model for the building which combined wall thickness analysis and fabric survey alongside a review of historical drawings and existing floor levels.

Preston Tower and Doocot, a Scheduled Monument originally built in the 15th and 17th centuries, respectively, was surveyed by CFA’s expert team in multiple phases of work, including the production of a WSI, a desk-based assessment, a historic building survey, trial trench evaluation, and watching briefs. These works highlighted different phases of adaptation and use of the tower, up to and including evidence of 19th- and 20th-century landscaping. The building survey included metric, descriptive, and photographic elements. It was a thorough investigation into the standing remains of this important building, and the combined works by CFA brought together hitherto uncollected information to create a more unified and complete understanding of the structure and its history.

CFA's built heritage team are experts in Industrial Archaeology. In 2023, we undertook an historic building recording and structural watching brief prior to and during the demolition of three industrial cotton mills in Greater Manchester. The mills, Elm Mill, Lily Mill 1, and Lily Mill 2, dated from 1890 to 1913 and were designed by Joseph Stott and Son. CFA’s team followed a WSI which required the adaptation of existing building plans, the creation of elevation drawings, detail drawings of surviving line shaft brackets, and plans of the double brick arch systems and fireproofing systems. In all, we created a detailed and comprehensive archival record to preserve the history of these important buildings while allowing future development of the area to continue.

CFA has undertaken many surveys of rural vernacular buildings, such as this late 18th-to 20th-century farmstead. Grade II listed Horn End Farm included a total of seven buildings which required archaeological survey prior to their conversion into dwellings. In addition to our standard written, drawn, and photographic record, our recording methodology included the creation of orthographic photographs via photogrammetric survey, which produced a fully rendered 3D model. We used census return data and historic maps to identify changes and alterations in the building over time, mapping out phases of use. By combining survey and research, we were able to report on the survival and expansion of this farm, which was greatly informative of the changing farming industry of 18th- to 20th-century Yorkshire.