July 20, 2026 / By rachel
For Week 20 of our #40Projects40Weeks series, we have reached the halfway point, so it felt only right to do something a little different.
A three-for-one, special, bumper edition.
This week, we are looking at The Ones That Got Away: three architecture projects that had every chance of success, but for reasons beyond the control of RRA, the clients and the wider project teams, could not go ahead. Each one was a valuable, community-minded project that would have improved not just one or two lives, but offered positive benefits to whole communities.
It is tempting, especially in a 40th anniversary series, to show only the successful, polished and neatly finished projects, and we do have plenty of those. But this series is about the experiences that have shaped RRA over 40 years. The frustrations, the disappointments and the projects that did not reach site are all part of that story too.
Holme Lacy College: The Last-Minute Listing
Holme Lacy College was a big one. It was going to be a £25 million project and a huge amount of time, energy and consultant expertise had been poured into it.
As a Herefordshire architectural practice, RRA had prepared a major three-phase masterplan to expand the Further Education Campus, creating new state-of-the-art teaching spaces for the specialist rural college, with subjects including farriery, blacksmithing, agriculture, engineering and animal care.
It was a serious scheme, with a serious budget and a serious amount of work behind it. For the full architectural details, you can visit the Holme Lacy project page, but in short, the college wanted to expand and modernise, and the RRA scheme was designed to help it do exactly that.
However, the project faced resistance, with a number of objections raised during the planning process, mostly relating to the proposed demolition of an existing building, Bower House. Nonetheless, the justification for the scheme and the benefits it would bring to the local economy won out, and the project was granted planning permission. The minutes of the council meeting on 23 February 2011 even quote English Heritage as saying of the house:“… Bower House does not, despite its 18th Century date, demonstrate the required degree of quality in architectural style, or the degree of intactness and the lack of later alteration to make it of special interest …”
So, in spite of the opposition, it all seemed to be moving in the right direction. Then, on 23 March, exactly one month after the council meeting, those opposing the scheme were successful in securing an emergency spot listing of Bower House.
The project was already feeling the pressure. It relied heavily on government funding from the Learning and Skills Council, funding that was cut as part of the wider aftermath of the 2008 recession, and the location for such a big expansion was also under question.
So, with these combined pressures already in play, the last-minute spot listing became the final nail in the coffin and the project was abandoned.
Sometimes the planning door opens, only for an obstacle to appear directly in front of it.
With thanks to Daniel Statham of Daniel Statham Studios, who created the visualisation of the campus during the original project. Daniel has kindly given permission for his images to be shared as part of the project archive.
The Daily Bread: The Car Park That Stopped the Rise
The Daily Bread was a very different kind of project, but equally frustrating in its own way.
Phase 1 of the full restoration at the Grade II* listed Norman church, St Michael and All Angels Church in Brampton Abbotts, had already been completed, and the next phase, how to keep the building financially sustainable, was well underway. The idea was to create a bakery, café and community space within the church, while still allowing the building to continue its role as a place of worship.
It had all the ingredients of a lovely story: a historic church, a beautiful village setting, huge community support, fresh bread and the chance to give a beautiful building a useful and practical future. The artisan baker had even been found to run the bakery.
What could possibly go wrong?
Well, the spoke in this particular wheel came in the shape of the car park.
As with many community and heritage projects, the building itself was only part of the puzzle. For the bakery and café to work properly, the practical arrangements around parking also had to be agreed. Despite a huge amount of effort, discussion and immense local support, the terms for using the car park could not be finalised.
And without the car park, the project simply could not work.
This is the sort of ending that is especially difficult, because the project was so advanced and an immense amount of time, care and money had been poured into what looked to be a popular, exciting and practical proposal. With great reluctance, the community group that had championed the project from the beginning eventually had to give up.
Sadly, the fully restored doors of this beautiful church, on a religious site that can be traced back to the Domesday Book of 1086, are still locked to the public.
The idea was anything but half-baked, but in the end this particular loaf never quite made it out of the oven.
More details of the restoration are in the St Michael and All Angels Church project page and of phase 2 in the Daily Bread project page.
Westfield Special School: The Pool That Would Have Helped So Many
The third project is the one that still feels the saddest to us because of the difference it would have made.
In 2019, RRA designed a hydrotherapy pool for Westfield School in Leominster, Herefordshire. Westfield School is a small maintained special school for students with severe and complex learning difficulties, and the brief was to create a safe, accessible and uplifting pool space for pupils and carers, with the ability to be used by the wider community to help raise funds and support the school financially.
It was not a huge pool, but it was carefully designed to accommodate two pupils and four carers at a time, with accessible changing, showers, lockers, specialist hoist systems and the support spaces needed to make the building genuinely usable. Additionally, the design featured a separate entrance, a small café area and a layout that protected pupils during the school day while providing a useful community resource outside school hours.
Then the planning world stopped.
Phosphates in the rivers stopped planning permissions in north Herefordshire, and even when applications began moving again, the backlog caused immense delays. This project became one of the casualties.
For a school project relying on grants and fundraising, time was not a minor inconvenience. Grant funding usually comes with strict deadlines, and the process of finding, applying for and securing that funding is expensive and exhausting in itself.
A short delay, even possibly a year, might have been survivable. But the planning delays lasted far longer than that, and eventually the money, momentum and energy behind the project simply ran out.
This one hurts because the pool would have supported pupils, carers and the wider community, and everyone involved wanted to see it happen.
More details of the scheme at the Hydrotherapy Pool project page.
Why Tell These Stories?
This blog, the official halfway mark, of our #40Projects40Weeks series, is different, they may be The Ones That Got Away, but they are still part of the RRA story and as a Herefordshire architectural practice we are very proud of this story.
Holme Lacy College, The Daily Bread and Westfield Special School’s hydrotherapy pool each had real value, and each shows how many things have to align before a building can reach the finish line. Design is only one part of the process; funding, planning, timing, permissions, agreements and sheer momentum all matter too.
This is part of our #40Projects40Weeks series, if you have missed any of the previous posts, you can catch up on our News page.
About RRA Architects
Currently celebrating its 40th year, RRA Architects is an award-winning architectural practice established in 1986, supporting clients across residential, commercial, retail, development, heritage, education, community and conservation projects.
We work nationally, but are mostly focused across Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire, the Cotswolds, Bristol and Avon, the West Midlands, South West and South Wales, helping clients create thoughtful, practical and well-designed buildings.