HERONBY – A NEW SETTLEMENT
Escrick Park Estate is bringing forward proposals for a new community for North Yorkshire, in response to Selby District Council’s requirement for strategic housing sites to be allocated in its emerging Local Plan.
Heronby will lie to the south west of the village of Escrick, midway between Selby and York, on a site owned by the Estate.
This carefully masterplanned settlement is inspired by the character and function of some of its neighbouring communities; with its own market square, a high street, business space, new schools and a broad mix of homes.
HERONBY IS FAITHFUL TO
TRADITION AND FIT FOR NOW.
Skipwith Connected: Biodiversity Net Gain
In 2020 as part of DEFRA's preparation for Mandatory Biodiversity Net Gain, Escrick Park Estate applied to become one of the pilot projects to support the design of the Biodiversity Credits Scheme. Of the 87 applications received, Escrick Park Estate was selected as one of 9 pilot sites based on the opportunities for BNG, natural capital benefits and landscape connectivity.
Our scheme is focused on the Lawton Principles of bigger, better, more joined up, and draws on the extensive habitat and species surveys conducted over the last few years, as well as historic mapping to determine land use patterns, soil sampling and hydrological assessments.
Following the closure of the pilot we continued to work towards a scheme aimed at buffering Skipwith Common National Nature Reserve (NNR) and its precious habitats resulting in a 400 acre landscape scale project we have called Skipwith Connected.
Restoring Nature Across Landscapes
The eastern part of the project area will provide an early successional suite of acid grassland & heathland habitats, returning these fields to the habitat types that they were for centuries. Running through the three fields that make up this part of the project area will be watercourses and wetlands created by daylighting main drains under the fields.
The larger central section will create a significant buffer/extension to the north of the NNR with a mosaic of traditionally based grassland habitats including wet, lowland meadow and lowland fen. Hedgerows will be restored and new ones planted and scrub will form transitions from the Common and into the wider estate. The main element of this large central part of the project area will be the restoration of more natural hydrological conditions which in practice means allowing the water passing through this catchment to flow more naturally and therefore re-connect the floodplain. Extensive wetland features will transform this area reflecting how it would have been for centuries and significantly buffering the NNR and providing it with greater resilience.
The western section of the project area will see us returning 4 large arable fields to a patchwork of 20 lowland meadows divided by new hedgerows on the old lines of the original hedgerows. Scrub will again be included to form a transition out from the Common and also to provide links & stepping stones through this part of the landscape. Some small scale re-instatement of watercourses, and the creation of ponds will provide continuity across the project area. In association with the farmland buildings a traditional orchard will also be created reflecting the original layout of this type of farmstead.
In combination with Back Common, Crook Moor, Little Common and Skipwith Common the BNG project area connects some 1,400 acres of land being managed for conservation and biodiversity.
NEW DEVELOPMENT – CARRS MEADOW, ESCRICK
Following the recent closure of the working abattoir in the centre of Escrick, Escrick Park Estate is drawing up plans to develop the adjacent parcel of land on Carrs Meadow.
This will sympathetically complete the streetscape with 5 new houses, all within a stone’s throw of the village green, the renowned primary school, Gassy Wood and the many wonderful amenities the village has to offer.
The mix of detached and semi-detached houses will be sensitively designed in keeping with the vernacular arts and crafts style, picking up on details such as hanging tiles and mixed native hedging. These new homes will be complete with solar panels and air source heat pumps, discreetly located to reduce their impact on Carrs Meadow.
NEW DEVELOPMENT – THE CROFTS, DEIGHTON
Escrick Park Estate is bringing forward proposals for a new development of some 26 homes in Deighton. The development will deliver 50% affordable housing, much needed in the area, alongside a number of bungalows.
The last community asset in the village, the White Swan pub, recently closed and this development will provide a village green and playground creating a new community facility.