Cottenham’s main street runs for more than a mile, from All Saints’ Church down to the green, and it has had a hard history. A fire in 1676 destroyed half the village, and a run of fires in the 19th century took dozens more houses, the worst of them in 1850, when 35 houses, 26 farms and 7 shops were lost. What you see today is the result: a scattering of timber-framed cottages that came through, and a great many houses rebuilt afterwards in local gault brick and slate. Cottenham is a regular stop for A&F Building Services, a short run up from Cambridge.
Gault brick villas, timber frames and newer estates
Along High Street, many houses were rebuilt in the early 19th century as substantial three-bay, double-pile villas in gault brick with slate roofs. In between are at least 20 timber-framed houses and cottages from the late 17th or early 18th century. Behind the street the picture changes. Council estates went up on the edge of the village, at Victory Way, Oakington Road and Coolidge Gardens, and from 1964 private housing filled the old orchards and market gardens between High Street, Lamb’s Lane and Rampton Road. Cottenham grew from almost 900 houses in 1961 to nearly 1,500 by 1981.
Each of these asks for something different. A gault brick villa usually wants an addition that respects its proportions and its pale brick. A 1970s house off Lamb’s Lane often has room for a single-storey rear extension or a garage conversion. A timber-framed cottage needs patient carpentry and repairs that suit the way it was built in the first place.
A Cottenham kitchen we refurbished
Our Cottenham kitchen refurbishment shows what a kitchen project can involve. The room has deep navy cabinetry with warm brass handles in a G-shaped layout, with a breakfast bar peninsula, concrete-look laminate worktops and an undermount ceramic Belfast-style sink with a brass swan-neck tap. A chimney extractor hood, built-in gas hob and integrated oven sit alongside under-cabinet strip lighting, recessed spotlights, brass pendant lights and natural oak-effect flooring. If you’re weighing up something similar, our kitchens page explains how we go about it.
Planning and the conservation area
Cottenham has a designated conservation area, and All Saints’ Church, whose west tower was rebuilt in the early 17th century after storm damage, is Grade I listed. If your house sits in or beside the conservation area, or is listed, some work that would normally count as permitted development will need consent, so talk to South Cambridgeshire District Council first.
The village also has its own Neighbourhood Plan. It was made in May 2021 after a referendum, and it now forms part of the development plan the council uses when deciding planning applications in the parish. Cottenham has a long record here: it was one of the first villages in the country to produce a Village Design Statement.
One team, start to finish
We have been building since 1993, and we are fully insured. Our own team handles the design conversations, the build and the finishing, so there is one firm to call rather than a string of separate trades. The team is Andy Fryatt, our Company Director, Leon Dasseville Fryatt, our Site Manager, and Francine Dasseville, our Secretary.
