GATEHOUSES from a 19th century “micro-estate” in Swinton will be given a new lease of life as new homes thanks to Elan Homes.
The former Swinton Hall nursing home on Worsley Road is being demolished to make way for a 20-home housing development.
The site was previously known as Birchfield House, a ‘micro-estate’ built in the second half of the 19th century comprising the main house, gardens, two ‘gatehouses’, a road approaching the house with a gated entrance and boundary walls.
Elan is honouring the site’s history, naming the development Birchfield Court and refurbishing the gatehouses to provide a pair of two-bedroom detached properties and a new gated community.
Philip Palmer, land director for Elan Homes in the North, said:
“Bringing redundant sites like the former Swinton Hall nursing home back into good use is an important part of our land acquisition strategy. We recognise that while there’s a pent up demand for quality housing across Greater Manchester, we need to take a sensitive approach and where possible retain historic elements of our urban form, preserving and enhancing those for years to come. The gatehouses will be converted into elegant new homes, to sit alongside 18 new homes providing an intimate, yet secure, gated development, with the addition of making a stunning feature of the original gates which are being refurbished.”
Elan has full planning permission for the scheme, which will offer a choice of three and four-bedroom new-build homes in a mix of mews, semi-detached and detached designs, alongside the two-bedroom homes in the converted gatehouses.
The new homes will enjoy a gated courtyard setting with the existing mature trees being retained around the site’s boundaries and within the wider landscaping to providing provide an established green setting.
Each home will have a rear garden and either designated parking spaces, plot driveways or single garages.
Linked to the development, Elan has committed to investing more than £200,000 in the local community through planning legal agreements reached secured during the planning process.
An open space contribution of around £155,000 will be payable to the Council directed towards improvements to the nearby local greenspace networks of Victoria Park; and/or The Valley Community Centre and Grounds; and/or Moorside Park/Beech Farm Playing Fields and their future maintenance.
Elan has also committed to making an education contribution of more than £64,000 to be used by Salford Council for pupil planning in South Swinton.
The first homes at Birchfield Court are due to be released for sale in summer 2022.
It will be an ideal base for commuters as the homes are being built less than a mile from Swinton station, only five miles from Manchester city centre and close to the East Lancashire Road (A580) which also provides quick access to the motorway network to both Manchester and Liverpool.
“There’s a real demand for new build property, particularly quality family housing, in the Manchester commuter belt in general,” Philip explained. “Part of our land buying focus, is to acquire sites across Greater Manchester. We’re currently active on sites in Ramsbottom, Middleton and Dukinfield and are actively seeking additional land with development potential in the Manchester area and obviously across the wider North West conurbation. Those opportunities will include similar brownfield sites with a range of former uses. Typically, we’d look at land capable of delivering anything from 20 to 150 homes and will consider land with, or without, planning permission. We have a proven track record of working with landowners, local authorities, industrial operators, land promoters and those necessary stakeholders to deliver new residential schemes, appraising the local market and assessing who would want to live there, and why, before planning a bespoke development to address the housing need in that particular area.”
To explore land opportunities with the Elan team visit https://www.elan-homes.co.uk/about-elan/land-enquiries.
Potential purchasers can register interest in Birchfield Court via https://www.elan-homes.co.uk/developments/birchfield-court.