Altered States: six conversions that might change your mind about modern interventions

Few conversions can tell the ‘before and after’ story more immediately than those carried out in old churches. High vaulted ceilings create so much space that the task of converting a church to private use may seem daunting, but if done thoughtfully, potential for both the intimate and the spectacular abound. Nowhere is this more obvious than at Old Coach Road. The church of St. John, just outside Ford in Wiltshire, was already known for its distinctive shingled spire, but the Grade-II listed building is really celebrated for its stained-glass panel, by the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones.

The space has been used to create a home as habitable as it is innovative. The nave has been split, the chancel now housing a spectacular kitchen separated from the living area by an impressive rood screen, while the organ loft is now a study, and the old vestry a bedroom. In the preservation of its original features, the spirit of the past is present while modern needs are met. And the hills of the Cotswolds are right there on the doorstep.

When the days start drawing in, we turn to the places where we can gather together to shout, sing and feel brave in the face of leaner times ahead. And as we leave the dog days of summer behind, pubs all over the country come into their own. Coals will be stoked, blankets brought out from their cupboards, wine spiced and cider mulled once again. For many there’s no place quite like home, but for others, the local pub comes pretty close.

On Friars Walk in Lewes, one such local has been elegantly converted in a way that’s sympathetic to but not stuck in its past. What was originally The Red, White and Blue free house now has an uncluttered, pale interior characterised by wooden panelling, glass partitions and modest antique flair. Flooded with light, it boasts many of the refined elements of a more contemporary home, while its façade – distinguishing the house as a well-loved local landmark – celebrates its history with original Victorian mint-green tiles. Overlooking the old All Saints church, in the middle of town, it’s close to the train station and not far from the South Downs either, where there’s plenty of scope to embrace autumn’s mellow charms and sea air.

Time moves more slowly in Norfolk. Hugging the North Sea, England’s most easterly county has remained in large parts untouched by more modern developments. So if you’re looking for a gentler pace of life, or even peace and quiet on the weekends, East Rudham might just tick those boxes. Quintessentially Norfolk, this little village, just 20 minutes’ drive from the windswept shoreline, provides a taste of how things used to be, while offering you a modern vibrant community. The well-known Crown pub, a small shop, the primary school, and a tearoom border the village green, which for a weekend every July, serves as the site for the local festival.

Not so long ago, the village green also boasted its very own bank – an agency of the King’s Lynn Barclays branch – which served the community for more than 40 years. Since then, this charming Grade II-listed building has been converted into a pretty five-bedroom cottage with an open-plan kitchen. Restored to the highest quality, its classic proportions are sharp and clean, drawing attention to the house’s original features and local character; meanwhile exposed brickwork creates interesting contrasts throughout and is echoed in the flint and brick not just of the garden wall, but in the walls of St. Mary’s church just down the road (and in most of the historic buildings of Norfolk).

From churches to banks to pubs, thoughtful design can turn almost anything into a home with heritage and character. That said, not all conversions are born equal. For instance, turning a Grade II*-listed Victorian tweed mill into private residences must have been challenging, to say the least. But when said tweed mill happens to have been built to resemble a stately home, complete with towers topped by stone urns and a chimneystack styled as a Tuscan column? The stakes are somewhat different.

The Cotswolds was once known for producing the finest wool in Europe, much of which – particularly during the war years – passed through Bliss Mill. But as the industry modernised and traditional manufacturing became outdated, the spectacular building required new use. In 1988, Bliss Mill was intelligently divided into generous residential apartments, set in nearly six acres of landscaped gardens. Among its amenities there’s a swimming pool, sauna, tennis courts and a gym, and close by, the pretty historic Cotswold town of Chipping Norton, with Oxford just 20 miles further. For the conversion lover – one passionate for the historical who sees the value of modern design – there are few options more ideal.

For those undertaking a conversion themselves, there is a thin line between what to keep and what to change. It’s tempting to lean too hard either way. In churches, with connotations of the past everywhere, this can prove especially difficult. But in this particular 12th-century example in Suffolk, delicate craftsmanship has led to the creation of a spectacular four-bedroom home that makes no attempt to conceal its past.

Set in an acre of Suffolk gardens, surrounded by woodland and fields, the house is accessible along a forest path, which weaves its way through orchards of ancient fruit trees. Glinting light flickers through the canopy overhead, bouncing off the rugged flint from which the house is built. As a Grade II*-listed building, the old church is a bastion of the area’s architectural heritage, with original Medieval features incorporated throughout its renovation.

Inside, the former nave has given way to a vast entrance hall with white-washed walls. Beyond, the vaulted ceiling of the old chancel, now the main living area, has a spectacular sense of space. Its crowning achievement, however, is a sleek spiral glass staircase, constructed in conjunction with English Heritage, that leads to a library and terrace up in the old church tower.

This three-bedroom house, not far from the rugged surfable shore of Perran Sands, is an ecclesiastical conversion with a difference. For while Cocks Hill has religious roots, there’s little about its architecture that would tell you as much – save for the small white cross on the façade’s gable end.

Constructed not as a place of worship, but as a parish community hub and space for Sunday school in 1842, its 21st-century update makes the most of the original structure’s A-frames and exposed-stone walls – with their echoes of the local agricultural vernacular – rather than any particularly spiritual symbols.

Here, the material palette mingles modernity and tradition seamlessly. In the double-height kitchen, for instance, a mix of raw and limewashed wood – staples of both traditional farmhouses and latter-day gems – meet slick stainless steel, while the bedrooms combine the contemporary taste for mottled pastel walls with timeless sisal and painted beams. If conversions offer the ideal combination of culture and comfort, past and present, then Cocks Hill – in all its considered beauty – is a consummate example.