"The Moors" 82 Star Road

[Avis]

I mentioned last year in this thread

http://www.reading-forum.co.uk/forum/vi ... =76&t=7592

an old house in Star Road which was on the market. It sold shortly after that for £150,000 and then the new owners put in for planning permission and listed building consent to modernise and extend it. For some reason the applications were withdrawn and now it is back on the market again.

http://www.romans.co.uk/Property/58270/

I went to see it today - they have been having some open viewings. Oh it is in a sad state! As you can see from the pictures. The ceilings in the two front ground floor rooms will be too low for you if you are over about 5ft 7in. But for someone with vision, taste, and not a little money, there is such a fantastic opportunity there. Big garden, plenty of room to extend, room for off-road parking, even a garage.

Guide price is £150,000. If you are interested. Maybe if we all clubbed together??

[lizwing]

As you say Avis it could be lovely but it would need a lot of money thrown at it. I'm amazed it hasn't been bought and demolished to make way for a new build. Is it protected?

[Yola]

What a beautiful little cottage! And yes, it is in need of much tender care. But, with the right people taking it on; ones who are happy to learn the art of repairing lath and plaster walls, how to re-instate fireplaces and how to lay floors that help a room breathe . . . it could be a proper gem.

Let's hope the right people can be found.

[Avis]

Yes, it is Grade II listed. If it hadn't been, I am sure it would be long gone, and a block of flats in its place!

[lizwing]

I wonder what its history is,obviously very old but the strange chimney breast shapes inside make me wonder what it was used as.

[Caveman]

But don't forget it's Star Road!

[Ebbtide]

As thats a guide price, I would imagine it will sell for a lot more!

[lizwing]

Does it show up in any old directories?

[shrinkingman]

Oddly, that building doesn't ring any bells with me, I must have seen it thousands of times when I lived in Briants Avenue but I don't recall it at all.There are (or were) quite a few old buildings on Star Road, evidence of a time when it was more of a main road, before Briants Avenue was built. There was a row of cottages next to the Red Cow that looked like they'd been there forever, they appear to have been replaced now. Are there many older houses along there any more?

[C8H10N4O2]

It is lovely,...if it were only somewhere else !
Not a slur on it's location, but it screams being near a sandy cove, the edge of a forest, or wild moorlands.

However, this one will swallow some £125k-£150k ... possibly £175k if you have a next than excellent contractor...and that's before you even throw paint at it if you want a home.
As a shop though, £60k would probably do it (plus any "specialist" equipment)...for example, I could see a barbers/hairdressers or perhaps a flower shop doing quite well there.

[lizwing]

I see it as a little speciality bakers shop.

[C8H10N4O2]

I see it as a little speciality bakers shop.

I like it....the Caversham Patisserie

Not not sure they could squeeze the ovens in though.....

[Mayfield]

But who work/live there, I'm 5ft 7in and I don't fancy being close to the ceiling ! Are you allowed to lower the floor or raise the ceiling when a property is Grade 2 listed?
Frankly I'd run a mile...its got that most expensive of all words in the English language 'potential'

[Avis]

I think this would be something about which one would need a nice long chat with the local conservation officer, before anything else!

It's near the top end of Star Road, not far from the roundabout by the Co-op. Where the road is quite narrow, and parking is difficult (although there is space of off-road parking at the side.

There is still quite a lot of Victorian housing in Star Road, but much of it is a lot more recent. And when they built Douglas Road and the roads which lead off it, they knocked down a few houses.

[Bam]

82 Star Road listed as Alfred Chas. Dawson, SMALLHOLDER. In 1955 and 1960 Directories.

[lizwing]

82 Star Road listed as Alfred Chas. Dawson, SMALLHOLDER. In 1955 and 1960 Directories.

Well there's the answer to the height of the ceilings - he was a SMALL holder.

[eddieed]

For some reason the applications were withdrawn and now it is back on the market again.

The Council normally give you the option to withdraw the application if you are not going to succeed in getting permission. This allows you to hide the reasons for refusal, although I think the freedom of information act allows you to request the officers report so it defeats the object nowadays.

Interestingly the last purchaser paid £150k for it according to nethouseprices

Deep pockets and the possibility of not making a return make this very risky, especially if planning has been refused (well withdrawn) once!

[Horsey]

Spooky you mentioned this.

I stumbled across this a few days ago,took some pictures and made afew enquiries.

I believe it was owned by am Asian man who had a planning request to knock down a single-storet building and build a two storey exstention at the rear. Obviously this must have met with failure.


It went up for auction today with a guide price of £150,000.

It has an outdoor toilet and everything! :0)

[Avis]

I am reviving this old topic, because there is more news about this house.

I was told earlier this week that there was some work being done, so I wandered along to have a look. OK, I was being nosey!

The front door was open and I could hear that someone was inside. I was chatting to a woman who had come from her house over the road to ask me if I knew what was happening, when a young man heard us talking and came out to tell us that he was the new owner.

He has been doing a lot of research into the house, which is probably a lot older than anyone thought, and has had a specialist contractor, someone from the Council, the conservation officer and someone from English Heritage to come and look at it. It was originally a "cruck" construction, but over the centuries just about everyone has had a go at it and there is evidence of Georgian, Victorian, and 20th century tampering with the structure. What one might imagine was some kind of lime rendering (which is why it is white - ish!) is in fact modern cement, put on in the 1970s, which has done the place no favours at all. Underneath all that it is in a very sad state. But the new owner is optimistic, enthusiastic, and absolutely determined that this will be the new home for his family one day.

Honestly, you couldn't have asked for a nicer, more suitable person to take care of this house. He has taken on an enormous task but I have no doubt that he will succeed!

[piwacket]

Avis - it sounds really intriguing.... to think what changes it must have witnessed over the years... be great to establish when it was actually built, and what it's situation was - workman's cottage or whatever.... it looks really tiny - is it that small?

[Avis]

It was smaller, then it was bigger, then smaller again. It's complicated!! There's a fair amount of building out the back, which is much newer, and will probably have to go. But there is planning, and listed building consent, and a lot of hoops to jump through before then. Meanwhile they are trying to work out just what everything is, and how old.

[piwacket]

Even more mysterious - and I wonder how it got the name ''The Moors'' conjures up Dartmoor or the like - not a street in Caversham Ah! perhaps it was a boatman's ''mooring''/home?

[Mayfield]

Such a bonus that it seems to be in the hands of a responsible owner

[Avis]

Such a bonus that it seems to be in the hands of a responsible owner

Yes, I know. I was so pleased. I have always had a great affection for the place - a real survivor of old Caversham, while new building was going on all around it.

[Ebbtide]

Even more mysterious - and I wonder how it got the name ''The Moors'' conjures up Dartmoor or the like - not a street in Caversham Ah! perhaps it was a boatman's ''mooring''/home?

Possible Pi its not far from the river if I remember correctly. I wonder if many years ago, perhaps someone called Mr & Mrs Moor lived there "The Moors"? Well that's my theory. I expect the reason has been lost in time though.

Maurice

[lizwing]

I've just looked at the photos again and my goodness it needs such a lot of work ! A fascinating project for the new owner,I hope he has very deep pockets !

[C8H10N4O2]

Even more mysterious - and I wonder how it got the name ''The Moors'' conjures up Dartmoor or the like - not a street in Caversham Ah! perhaps it was a boatman's ''mooring''/home?

Possible Pi its not far from the river if I remember correctly. I wonder if many years ago, perhaps someone called Mr & Mrs Moor lived there "The Moors"? Well that's my theory. I expect the reason has been lost in time though.
Maurice

http://www.caversham.org.uk/historyandf ... ersham.pdf
Page 18, last paragraph...a likely clue to the name?

[Boring]

Page 18, last paragraph...a likely clue to the name?

The enclosure map is here:

http://www.berkshirenclosure.org.uk/xml ... 1B/Map.jpg

Bottom right-hand corner.

N.

[piwacket]

Coffee and Nick - will have to come back to those later - busy at present

[chick]

Wonder how he's getting on, has anyone seen it lately? I went for a poke around last year before it was sold at auction. Would be amazing to see it restored back to former glory (however that's actually interpreted with all the work on it over the years!)

[Avis]

Went past it the other day - nothing seems to have changed much. The owner had a website about the building, but he has not updated it since last September, just after I visited.

[CavMan]

I pass this property most days and have often wondered at the origins of the name. Being a Yorkshire man I associate moors with bleak upland areas, this house is situated in one of the lower lying areas in the borough, however during the recent flooding in Somerset there were a lot of reports of the moors being flooded, how so I thought? Turns out moor refers to peat boggy areas such as those oft found atop the Yorkshire moors. Before the expansion of Caversham in the late 19th and early 20th century I should imagine the surrounding area could be quite boggy requiring drainage to cultivate it. Also the origin of the word Moor derives from the old English for swamp.

moor
noun
1.
a tract of open, peaty, wasteland, often overgrown with heath, common in high latitudes and altitudes where drainage is poor; heath.
2.
a tract of land preserved for game.

Word Origin
Old English mōr; related to Old Saxon mōr, Old High German muor swamp

[Boring]

We had a look at the cottage this afternoon and now that the garden has seen just a bit of TLC it's possible to see just how large this is. As for the cottage, nothing appears to have changed. A window in the front door has been smashed and the part of the timber frame near the door is almost rotted away. There's an enormous amount of work to be done on the place.

N.

[Boring]

Before the expansion of Caversham in the late 19th and early 20th century I should imagine the surrounding area could be quite boggy requiring drainage to cultivate it. Also the origin of the word Moor derives from the old English for swamp.

Reckon you're on to a good thing there. I think the 'Moor' shown on the enclosure map must be the bit of land outlined in red and for sure it was wet and swampy. Or parts of it were.

N.

[chick]

Sorry to bounce an old thread, but I just remembered the convo about this property - does anyone have any updates? I might drive past some time soon to nose....