The tired-looking, ramshackle workshop and outbuildings on a derelict and untidy site lay forlorn and abandoned.

Known as The Old Steam Laundry, it is tucked away in Englands Close, Sidford, only familiar to walkers and cyclists. It had prospered for decades, cleaning the bedlinen and tablecloths of the plethora of Sidmouth’s hotels, using so much water in the process that it even had its own bore-hole and water-tower, the latter a hideous, elevated rhomboid structure jutting into the sky.

After closure in the 1970s, the laundry building was put to use as home for the construction of a 60-ft trimaran, squashed in one hull at a time. After that it was used for the cleaning of sails, while the enormous building at the back of the site served annually as a working space for the fabrication of Sidmouth carnival floats.

Later, the site’s potential for redevelopment was explored by a planning application for new dwellings which was refused because of its situation in a Flood Zone. East Devon District Council were, nevertheless, keen to see the site spruced up and were amenable to a scheme that included in it an element of the original industrial use, within the brief that “employment must be retained on site”.

Enter Dan Wilkinson, M.Eng C.Eng M.I.StructE, who drew up and submitted plans for a scheme comprising three dwellings within the large laundry building, two living/work units in the workshop and one dwelling in The Forge. His scheme retained many architectural features of the large laundry unit including brick arches, a semi-circular feature window and, most particularly, steel trusses supporting the huge vaulted roof. The existing tie-members of the trusses restricted the headroom to only 1.2 metres but by re-configuring the struts and ties (whilst in situ!) the trusses were able to remain as a visual reminder of the building’s history, and the Building Regulations headroom requirements were met.

Although the available floor area would have been sufficient for four-bedroomed units, a design decision was made to have three bedrooms per unit. This facilitated a first-floor lounge and ground-floor kitchen/diner in each case. This made best use of the first-floor semi-circular gable window in the end unit, a very strong design statement, together with the benefit that all of the steel trusses are entirely visible within the vaulted, open roof-space void.

The smaller building known as The Forge has been largely reconstructed using timber frame to replicate the original vernacular architecture, and stands as an intriguing counterpoint opposite the laundry.

Solar panels and Air Source heat pumps have made a contribution as well as Mr Wilkinson’s mantra, “do the right thing for the building”. Every opportunity has been taken to re-use the materials on site, including bricks, blocks and timber, with consequential reduction on tipping fees, landfill tax, transport, manufacture and therefore carbon footprint.

I think it is fair to say that the scheme is a credit to engineer and site manager Dan Wilkinson, who has designed imaginatively, engineered, and worked “hands-on” on site to create a unique development and saved some fine and historical industrial buildings that were not actually listed as being of architectural or historic interest.