Written by Darren Blackwell – Design Director at Oakland Vale and a Regional Architectural Designer within our Architectural Design team

This Farm Shop is located within the Longstock Park Nursery, which is part of the Leckford Estate in Hampshire, owned and managed by Waitrose & Partners. The Nursery is set in and around a brick and flint walled garden, and is home to National Collections of Buddleja and Clematis Viticella and the Gilchrist Collection of Penstemon.

The architectural design process

The conceptual stage of the project started in late 2011, when I initially met up with the Commercial Manager of the Leckford Estate and Anthony Carroll from Oakwrights. Planning permission had already been gained for a Farm Shop at the Nursery for a large, single storey building, containing a Cafeteria, Farm Shop and education facility. Our design brief was to develop this scheme to one of a more agricultural and sustainable nature, which would be sympathetic and befitting of its rural location. The Farm Shop was also to house a welcoming and comfortable refreshment area, comprising a post and beam frame with Queen post trusses, with a main barn-style entrance formed by a green oak cruck frame. There was to be a shop to sell locally and sustainably produced produce, and an education area for visiting schools etc.

The proposed new oak frame Farm Shop for the Leckford Estate would be a vast improvement over the existing arrangements: a small area for refreshments housed within an existing greenhouse which was far from welcoming and often unmanned, while being too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. There was also a small shop on the site that was associated with the Nursery selling gardening accessories and for the sale of the plants and trees.

The planning application process

The Commercial Manager had some initial discussions with the planning officer to get an informal opinion as to whether a revised application would be supported by the planners. Following some positive feedback, we submitted a pre-application enquiry in October 2011. The revised scheme submitted was to incorporate a green oak structural framing system, giving the internal ambience of a traditional barn. Also an arcade of pergola-styled oak posts and beams was proposed through the front elevation to not only ‘soften’ the impact of the full-height glazed sections behind, but also to form a natural sun shade with the aide of climbing plants to control the amount of solar gain.

Following positive feedback from the planning officer, we prepared and submitted a full planning application in March 2012. We also submitted detailed drawings for Building Regulations approval at the same time. Planning approval for the revised scheme was approved on 22nd May 2012.

Oakland Vale became approved contractors for this project and construction work began on-site in January 2013. The oak frame was constructed by Oakwrights’ site teams in February 2013, and the build was completed in August 2013, with the doors opening to the public that same month. The Farm Shop launch was a great success and it has continued to be well supported from both local residents and visitors from much further afield.