Responding to a request from Taunton Deane Borough Council’s Housing Enabling team for land for affordable housing needs, the National Trust has announced plans to sell two acres of farmland on the edge of Taunton.

The proceeds will fund the return to its former glory of one of Somerset’s great 18th century gardens, Fyne Court, and will also provide funds for future acquisitions of important countryside in the county.

The 18th-century Arcadian gardens at Fyne Court in the Quantocks were given by John Adams to the Trust to be looked after in perpetuity. Adams also donated areas of farmland with the intention that the Trust would sell this 'investment land' to fund the future of the garden and other countryside acquisitions.

The Trust is now in discussions with a local developer, Summerfield Homes, over the sale of two acres of farmland near Cheddon Road. Any housing development on the site would be subject to the full planning process and the Trust is working with Summerfield Homes to ensure that the proposed homes meet the highest environmental and design standards.

Fyne Court was once the pleasure grounds and home of pioneer electrical scientist Andrew Crosse. The house was destroyed by fire in 1894 and today the garden is in urgent need of restoration. Part of Fyne Court is currently leased to the Somerset Wildlife Trust and offers visitors wonderful walks and nature trails, but as an Arcadian garden, it has seen much better days.

An archaeological survey recently commissioned by the Trust shows the scale and importance of the original gardens and reveal that Fyne Court was a complex and significant historic landscape. The formal gardens, remnants of which are visible today, were laid out in the early to mid 18th century and are landscapes of national importance. There are links with Hestercombe Gardens and Stourhead through the designer Coplestone Warre Bampfylde who lived on the adjoining property to Fyne Court.

Features remaining today include the serpentine lake which for its time was a truly significant design and achievement as it is on one of the highest points of the property. The boat house, folly and walled garden are all in various stages of collapse but all indicate what a dramatic and beautiful landscape Fyne Court must have been. A Conservation Management Plan for the garden is currently under way, which will help the Trust identify the priorities for its work at Fyne Court in the future.

Brendan McCarthy, National Trust Regional Director, said:

'High quality, accessible open spaces and the infrastructure needed to support the economic needs and aspirations of our growing population have to co-exist.

As a conservation charity, we are pragmatic, sensitive and intelligent about which open spaces should be our priority for protection, and where we allow sustainable, well designed building to take place.

'In the case of the land at Cheddon Road, we are responding to an urgent request from Taunton Deane and as the land has no prior designation in the Local Plan the purchasers will be reliant on the democratic planning process. However, it is average quality farmland and the total area is not large enough to make a going concern as a farm, nor has it any special wildlife, archaeological or historical designation.

'By adhering to the wishes of the man who gave this land to the Trust, we will be able to fund the protection of the beautiful countryside nearby at Fyne Court and to provide funds to add to the 20,000 acres of iconic Somerset countryside already in Trust ownership. These include large parts of Exmoor, the Quantock and Mendip Hills, Brean Down, Cheddar Gorge, Ebbor Gorge and Glastonbury Tor, as well as the beautiful mansions and gardens of Montacute, Barrington, Lytes Cary and Tintinhull.'

Taunton Deane Borough Council’s Housing Enabling team has identified the Cheddon Road site as apotential 'departure site' for a suitable development of affordable housing.The land has been given no designation in the Local Plan. The fields are average farmland but are not large enough to make a going concern as a farm. They have no special wildlife, archaeological or historical designation.

There will be full public consultation on the plans and the proposals will be tested by the full planning process.

Useful links

www.tauntondeane.gov.uk/

http://www.summerfield.co.uk