Originally built in the late 18th century as a two storey stone warehouse for the local coastal trade to serve isolated farming communities in North Pembrokeshire, with a lower floor directly accessed from the beach, which may well have flooded on very high tides. Left derelict for many years and then turned into two workers cottages in the late 19th century, and then in the 1950’s converted and extended into one single storey cottage with loft bedrooms, the lower storey having been filled in.
The original local rubble and beach stone wall construction was found to be very insubstantial, bedded together with fine soil and sand, only held together by its render covering and in need of total rebuilding. The foundations for the stone walls were founded on rock and were reused, a new concrete blockwork cavity walling was raised with 300 mm wide full fill cavity insulation. The roof also has the equivalent insulation and the building is built to Code 5 standards/AECB Silver Standard. The house is very airtight and is fitted with a full MHVR system. Heating is by passive solar gains and the reused oil fired Rayburn boiler to supply the small amount of active space heating. Hot water is heated using solar collectors panels discretely mounted in the southern pitch of the rear roof slope. The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park footpath passes directly to the rear of the house, separating it from its main gardens, on the south facing terraced slopes above. The form of the building directly mirrors the original construction as can be seen in the original photos displayed. 4kw of photovoltaic electrical generation, by ground mounted panels were installed in 2011.
The commission was for a private client and carried out by a local general building contractor and specialist subcontractors between 2007-2009. Riverslea is a major and prominent landmark building on the Nevern Estuary at Newport, and has its own jetty and nearby a boathouse which is about to be redeveloped by the same team.