Our award Winning small Development in Herefordshire
We were delighted to be awarded the ‘Best Custom Build Project’ at the 2024 Homebuilding & Renovating Magazine Awards for our Orchard Hill project.
Cycle five minutes out of the village of Kimbolton, past the old orchards and grazing pasture, and you’ll come to Orchard Hill – four individually designed homes tucked into a quintessential corner of Herefordshire, and winner of ‘Best Custom Build Project’ at the 2024 Homebuilding & Renovating Awards, held in partnership with The Times and The Sunday Times.
Not so long ago, this was a tired agricultural yard with redundant buildings, cracked concrete and no particular charm. Today you’ll fine new native hedging, grassy verges and young trees, with a permeable driveway edged in cobbles leading to four beautiful Border Oak homes.
Four individual homes, same high standards
Each home at Orchard Hill was designed and specified individually for its owners – green oak frames, lime render, horizontal timber boarding, handmade clay tiles and handmade brick, in a mix of traditional and contemporary forms. No two are alike, yet walk the site and there’s an unmistakable coherence: a shared vernacular that feels as though it belongs to this particular fold of Herefordshire countryside.
Land like this rarely comes forward for development. Orchard Hill succeeded partly because it was brownfield (it had previously been developed) and partly because the proposal demonstrably improved the site – better landscaping, better ecology, better use of a redundant yard.
Border Oak is one of the few companies able to offer the full ‘plot to home’ process. We bought the land, designed the original proposal and created four fully serviced plots with detailed planning approval, then stayed on as main contractor throughout, with our own project manager on site. This process allowed each client to tailor their own homes whilst maintaining the scheme’s overall character. It also meant no one ended up living next door to an unfinished building site.
The build itself ran through the Covid years – no small achievement for a project of this ambition, delivered on time despite the disruption.
While Orchard Hill is a small scheme, just four homes, it makes a case that applies far beyond its own hedgerows: that custom build, done properly, can take a genuinely unpromising site and turn it into something that adds to a village. It is an award-winning example of what custom build can offer.
We have a number of other plots for sale around the country where you can build your own Border Oak home.
