Homebuilding & Renovating Magazine Awards
We were absolutely thrilled to hear that our custom build project near Kimbolton, Herefordshire, has been awarded ‘Best Custom Build Project 2024’ by the judges & readers of Homebuilding and Renovating Magazine, in partnership with The Times & The Sunday Times.
These prestigious national awards are hotly contested each year – with only the very finest projects shortlisted and assessed against the judges rigorous criteria.
Orchard Hill was awarded coveted ‘Best Custom Build’ project which is the second time we have been fortunate enough to win this category.Â
Orchard Hill is a small bespoke scheme of just four plots. Border Oak purchased the land, designed the proposal and created fully serviced sites with detailed Border Oak planning approval.
Border Oak devised the overall palette of materials for the project – green oak, lime render, horizontal timber boarding with hand made clay tiles and handmade brick – with each home individually designed and specified for our clients. We find that having ‘master plan’ and ‘main contractor’ with a Border Oak project manger uniquely offers aesthetic certainty for all purchasers, ensures our high standards across the site and enables the project to be completed – after all no one wants to risk living next door to a forever building site.
Orchard Hill is just a short bike ride from the village and sits within a quintessential Herefordshire landscape – old orchards and pasture, with a view of the church spire.
Securing planning approval on sites like this would normally be nigh on impossible. However this was a ‘brownfield’ plot – (previously developed land) and our proposal was locally supported because it enhanced the site. At the time the council couldn’t demonstrate a 5 year supply of housing land and so some policies were considered obsolete to try and improving housing delivery. Once planning approval was granted for the proposal, Border Oak were able to resubmit design changes for each purchaser, to reflect their wishes.
We removed the old agricultural/industrial buildings and concrete yards, restituting the site with hundreds of meters of new native hedging, grassy verges, new trees and gardens. A permeable shared driveway, edged in cobbles, runs to each plot which all have private gardens too.
The designs are a mix of traditional and contemporary, specifically conceived to reflect the vernacular of rural Herefordshire and positively contribute to the wider setting.
We deliberately incorporated a range of house sizes and styles and offered a broad choice of construction packages. The project was delivered by Border Oak under the very difficult Covid restriction era, which was a challenge in itself!
Orchard Hill is a really great example of the positives that custom build can offer – turning an abandoned agricultural eyesore into beautiful, sustainable, award winning homes.
Take a look at our plot pages to explore similar opportunities
