North Barnes Farm - A New Settlement for the Western Low Weald

North Barnes Farm is a plan for a small market town in the Western Low Weald of East Sussex.  The site abuts the South Downs National Park and forms part of panoramic views that are available from its escarpment.  We are working with Edge Urban Design to help secure an allocation for this new settlement in the emerging Lewes District Local Plan.  The vision for this new place is to create a thriving community where homes (up to 3,250) and jobs are delivered alongside leisure, nature and food growing.  Approximately 60% of the land will be set aside for green infrastructure and biodiversity net gain of over 30% will be generated.  We will repair and re-wild the landscape, restoring biodiversity and rebuilding ecological value for generations to come.  We are thinking about purpose, legacy and long-term thinking to create a successful place.  The development process will be based on a “phased place-making approach” that builds infrastructure and community at the heart of the new settlement rather than adding new homes onto the edge of existing towns and villages. 

Small scale regenerative farming and community food production forms an integral part of the scheme.  Almost 21 hectares of space for market gardens, smallholdings of varying sizes, orchards and allotments has been set aside to create a thriving food hub that will provide over one third of the fresh fruit and vegetable needs of the town’s population.  A strong framework of robust, ecologically rich green infrastructure corridors and spaces will be provided to conserve existing landscape assets and to integrate the new built form into the local landscape. These will deliver a visual mosaic of building and trees that will help conserve the landscape setting of the national park.  Our work on this project also involved, as part of the Lewes District Council Issues and Options consultation, various studies of the landscape implications of accommodating development growth through expansion of coastal towns and dispersing growth across all villages in the Low Weald.