Landowner rips up rule book to build ‘village of the future’

April 16, 2021 / Isla MacFarlane
Landowner rips up rule book to build ‘village of the future’

A landowner who is building a community village of the future of 6,000 homes in Welborne, Hampshire, wants to include virtual GPs, ground heating and a solar park to provide all the energy.

Mark Thistlethwayte has ripped up the rule book on the land given to his family by Henry VIII, and introduced a new way of working that will see as much work as possible kept within the local community

When he was told the roof slates usually came from abroad, he bought a nearby quarry and is dealing with regional builders, rather than the national behemoths. He is adapting existing buildings on the land to house ex-soldiers and homeless people so they can learn the skills needed to build their own homes. A local apprenticeship scheme will be set up.

He is investing in local brickworks to help them scale up and produce the millions of bricks needed.

The former banker is also proposing to engage in joint ventures with local builders, giving them the land to build the homes to his specifications and they then share the profits.

Ben Pentreath, one of the architects behind the Duchy of Cornwall’s Poundbury is on board and the village will have plenty of green spaces around the Edwardian era homes.

Thistlethwayte is ripping up the rule book to make the village everything he wants it to be. “The council didn’t want so many trees and they said it would cost £5,000 for the maintenance of each one. I thought, ‘OK, we’ll do it ourselves.’ To that end, he will set up his own management company, training locals to maintain the parks, hedges and trees.

The 25-year project will see the infrastructure built so much earlier than conventional large builds including pubs and shops stocked with produce from the estate. A community trust that will be run by residents will also be created.

The future-proofing will include drones to deliver parcels from a central hub and virtual GP services beamed into every home. Each home will be heated by ground-source heat pumps and solar power from the 48-megawatt solar park.

There will be three primary schools, one secondary school, 20 nurseries, 13 playgrounds, 11 hectares of sports facilities, 10,000 sq m of retail space, 105,000 sq m of business space and 84 hectares of park and woodland that will take 25 years to build.

Thistlethwayte said: “This is a once in a lifetimes opportunity to build a village the way it should be built, to include the local community and make sure that it will be fit to live in a hundred of two hundred years from now. The exciting thing is that we are lucky enough not to be constrained by normal practices – we have a clean slate to build an incredible community here and that is exactly what we are doing.”

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