The Banner Homes Site (Winchfield)
The building site lies between Folly Lane and Chaul End Road, behind the rows of houses that already exist there. Two semi-detached houses were demolished in the first half of 2000 to provide the access road it needed.
It lies to the west of the church which is screened by trees in the Churchyard.
I thought that the woods to the northeast were unlikely to be developed in the near future since it was a dump for bomb site rubbish in the war and has a high glass content, but since they are putting in piles for some of the current houses, this may not be true. In times gone by some of the site may have been used as the source of clay for the local brick making industry, the hole would then be used as a dump for spoil from other clay pits. This may be the reason for piles being dug down for about 10 metres (30').
The initial state of the site (which is beyond the end of the garden shown) looked like:
That picture was taken in August 2000. More photographs and details of the development can be seen on the next page.
The hedgerow which divided the site was removed along with the elders which came up to the garden fence. The majority of the plant material was shredded and ploughed back into the site.
The site was developed by Banner Homes.
The show home opened in February 2001. Most of the walls sound hollow except where there are radiators. Perhaps they have used plasterboard (or some such) to reduce the quantity of plaster required.
The prices (on the plots released so far) range from £134,950
for a two bedroom "Kensworth" semi-detached house,
through £164,950 for a three bedroom semi (another £15000 for
detached), and up to £239,950 for the largest four bedroomed
detached house. It is described as:
"Caddington
Fernwood
A development of sixteen homes comprising 2, 3 and 4 bedrooms."
As you will see on the next page, the site seemed to be "completed" about July 2001, but one of the houses has already eracted a huge conservatory which must have almost doubled its ground floor area!
The final name of the new road is Winchfield, which is the name of the meadow on which it stands.
©2000-2002, L.Thompson
Last edited: 10 January 2003