Faithful flock to new builds

TELEVISION show architect George Clarke is known to millions as The Restoration Man, after his Channel 4 programme of the same name, but he freely admits that City & Country's unassuming design and planning director, Simon Vernon-Harcourt, could "easily steal" his job.

- By Deborah Stone

That's because Simon heads up a team that helps to plan the restoration of some of Britain's finest historic buildings, either by converting them into homes or by designing new-builds within the grounds that, once sold, will fund essential renovations for older architecture on the same site.

St Osyth Priory in Essex is among the estates that City & Country has been involved with, restoring its 15th century Grade I listed Gatehouse and what used to be the priory - Darcy House - with some of the profits of its first new-build development on the old priory's land.