'Eyesore' Shottesbrooke Social Club building could become expanded modern farm

Plans are afoot to transform a site featuring a dilapidated social club into an expanded modern and sustainable farm in White Waltham.

Waltham Place Farm is a 220-acre mixed farm growing fruits, vegetables, and grains as well as grass-fed animals, small-scale.

A new barn is planned there, containing five new units for farm-workers to live in – offering ‘much needed farmworker accommodation and rural employment.’

There are also plans for four field kitchens and a new greenhouse.

The development would expand the existing farm to combine several farming practises in one setting, said CSK Architects, on behalf of applicants Quadrant Corporate Ltd.

‘Several stages of the food cycle can be understood as a lived experience across the seasons,’ including plant growth, harvest, processing, storage, preparation and eating.

CSK Architects say this is ‘rare’ and offers educational opportunities for visitors.

The design team considers the new model barn to be ‘exceptional’ in its architectural design and its environmental sustainability throughout the whole of its life cycle.

Design features include hemp construction materials and an earthen floor of the greenhouse. Hemp is a renewable resource that will be grown on the landscape. This also ‘contributes to the quality of the soil.’

Rainwater would be harvested to feed all the planters within the greenhouse and smart solar glass would be used for energy generation.

The project aims to use some timber sourced from the farm, from fallen trees.

Working with hemp is ‘a low-tech form of construction’ meaning that farmworkers ‘can be involved in processing and building with the materials for their own homes’.

Solid timber and hemp are both materials that ‘can be returned to the biosphere at the end of the building’s long life.’

The scheme is said to give ‘significant improvements in terms of the greening of the site’ and that it is expected to achieve a 123 per cent reduction in regulated CO2 emissions.

Waltham Place Farm is a ‘biodynamic’ farm, which views the farm as a closed, diversified ecosystem (as opposed to specialising in a particular crop).

The farm is considered by the Biodynamic Association to be ‘one of four model farms in the country.’

There are ‘very few organic and biodynamic estates’ and Waltham Place Farm ‘is considered one of the pioneers’.

In terms of car parking, the hardstanding will be reduced by more than 60 per cent.

Added to a partly permeable surface, what will be left is a ‘new much smaller parking area’ retaining 10 parking spaces.

The former White Waltham and Shottesbrooke Social Club two-bedroom bungalow and garage are set to be demolished.

The existing buildings are considered an ‘eyesore’ in the village, said CSK Architects.

To see all documents related to this application, enter 22/03297/FULL in the borough’s planning portal.