A comprehensive historic building survey and recording service
CFA’s built heritage team is uniquely qualified to undertake archaeological works prior to the renovation, restoration, or redevelopment of historic buildings. CFA has delivered over 375 historic building surveys and offers a comprehensive range of services, including initial appraisals, standing building surveys, and structural monitoring during development. We will help navigate council planning requirements, by producing comprehensive records and reports which fulfil planning conditions and contribute to the built environment record.
Historic building recording takes place when a building is to be redeveloped, converted, or demolished.
This may be required to support an application for Listed Building Consent, be a condition attached to planning consent, or form part of a larger scheme of works. If you have a planning condition, require a Written Scheme of Investigation (WSI), or need any advice relating to an historic building, CFA’s built heritage team will help. Our team works UK-wide, encompassing all of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and is experienced in all kinds of built historic structures.
If you have a project including a scheduled monument, listed building, or unlisted historic building, CFA’s buildings archaeologists will partner with you to navigate the planning process, record and report on the structure, and provide a meaningful consultation response.
Written Scheme of Investigation (WSI)
CFA’s buildings team are CIfA certified professionals who can create a WSI on your behalf, ensuring that the technical information is accurate and will be accepted by the planning authority. We understand the ins and outs of historic building recording and conservation architecture, and can help guide you through the planning process.
Standing Building Survey
If you have a planning condition or stipulation calling for archaeological building recording, standing building survey, or historic building survey or recording, CFA’s experienced buildings team can help. Our experts have surveyed and reported on all types of buildings, including Industrial-era mills, medieval barns, rural farmsteads, urban structures, military and defence standing infrastructure, and more.
See below for a few examples of our key projects.
Structural/Architectural Monitoring
When a building is due to undergo significant renovation or demolition, a programme of structural or architectural monitoring may be required. CFA’s building archaeologists are qualified to monitor ongoing works, creating an archive record to preserve the building’s history.
Key Projects
Riddle’s Court,
Edinburgh Old Town
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,
East Lothian
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.
Shaw Mills,
Greater Manchester
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.
Horn End Farm,
North York Moors
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.
