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An old school was the perfect homework project for architect James Arkle and his wife Gail

- Heather Dixon

It might have been small, but the compact former village school had so much character that Gail and James Arkle couldn’t resist.

‘We had been looking for two or three years for a house in the country and were struggling to find somewhere a bit different,’ says architect James.

‘This was exactly what we were looking for. It was very charming and very unusual.’

There was just one problem. Gail, head of business development for Step Change Debt Charity, and James were wanting to start a family and the two-bedroom converted village school near York was definitely short on space.

‘There is a seamless link between the house, the garden and the fields beyond’

‘We bought it in 2011 with the aim of developing it,’ says James. ‘Around the same time I was setting up my own architectural practice so there was a lot happening all at once.’

Taking it all in his stride, James took a measured and methodical approach to their new home, tidying up the existing building so they could live in it comfortably while they considered its potential.

‘We spent a long time working out how we wanted to use the space and what we wanted to achieve with structural changes and extensions,’ says James.

Initially, they considered extending straight across the back of the property, but soon agreed to a linear extension into the L-shaped garden to follow the plot’s natural lines and unite the house and garden effectively.