Our Development Plans

Our Development Plans

"As custodians of a modern estate, we are always looking to balance our land use with the need for food, forestry, energy, nature, housing and employment.

We are acutely aware how building projects must sensitively fit in with the rural surroundings as well as the community."

Monument Place

Monument Place is a 5.5 acre business park on the outskirts of Farndon village providing employment for multiple businesses and for over 60 people, full and part-time.

The business park is soon to be expanded (as shown below) to include more commercial space, complemented by an aesthetic nature reserve area to encourage drainage and enhance biodiversity. This development will create around 30 new jobs and will also provide new recreational routes for walkers and cyclists.

We would also like to build two padel tennis courts offering local people the chance to enjoy the world’s fastest growing racket sport.

The image illustrates the potential character that could be developed for the new units at Monument Place. The use of timber and sheet cladding materials fits within the vernacular for rural, agricultural buildings. These materials, potentially combined with solar panels, would also provide environmental benefits to the site and its tenants.

The land gradually falls to the north-west corner of the site, and a series of swales are proposed to allow surface water to slowly drain away, while a wildlife pond surrounded by wildflower meadow will provide new habitats and attractive spaces for both businesses and visitors using the site.

A new recreational route is proposed, linking the footpath on Brewery Lane to the west with the Chester Road to the east. This shared cycle and footpath will also connect to the meadow and pond previously described, and a cycle storage facility for staff and visitors to use.

Two new padel tennis courts are also proposed, connected to the recreational route, and screened from the industrial unit by new tree planting. These courts will be the only ones in Cheshire West (the nearest court is in Wilmslow at present), and will operate in collaboration with the existing fitness gym at Monument Place.

Churton Hall Farm

We have submitted plans to Cheshire West and Chester Council to transform the Grade II listed historic Churton Hall Farm and its grounds to give it a new lease of life and to protect it for future generations.

Outbuildings in the farmyard would provide 10 new high-quality homes around a courtyard with offices available to residents for homeworking through the renovation of a disused hayloft.

The highlight of the development would be the creation of a care farm to support those with physical and mental challenges that would be run as a not-for-profit CIC (Community Interest Company) and which would become a community and educational resource.

A separate application to sub-divide historic Churton Hall into two separate properties has been given the go-ahead by the council. The house is currently a mix of Elizabethan and Victorian architecture.

Churton Hall is the oldest house on the Estate and parts of it have been dated to the 15^th Century. We have consulted with parish councillors and the village closely on our plans over the last couple of years and we believe they offer an exciting future for the site and one that ensures that it continues to be of huge importance to people living and working in Churton, Farndon and other neighbouring villages.

Hapsford

The Estate’s holding at Hapsford includes:

a 210-acre arable tenanted farm
a Grade II listed Georgian farmhouse converted into a private pre-school and day nursery
a composting depot 'George Whittaker & Sons' (Tel 01565 654 866), with capacity for 25,000 tonnes of green waste and
a residential cottage let

There is an allocation under the Local Plan for commercial development.

We also support the need for new modern residential-led schemes in our rural communities.

One example is an established partnership with Brookhouse Group to bring the pictured residential scheme project for 76 houses at Hapsford through to fruition.

Renewable Energy

We have installed three EV chargers in the village of Farndon.

We are also exploring more solar, biomass and other green initiatives.