Planning Submitted at the Stamford Arms

We are delighted to announce that a planning application has now been submitted to Cheshire East for the former Stamford Arms Pub site in Little Bollington.

The buildings on the site, constructed in the early 20th century in a mock-Tudor Edwardian style, have been left empty since the pub closed in July 2012, with subsequent water ingress and vandalism leaving the buildings in a dilapidated state. Novo purchased the property in September 2019, with the ambition to bring these important and impressive buildings back to life.

The plans for the site include the restoration and conversion of the pub building and coach houses into 9 affordable apartments and 5 townhouses respectively, along with 4 new-build family houses on the former car park.

Ben Fearns, MD at Novo said:

“After purchasing the Stamford Arms site, the extent of interest in the building from local and wider communities immediately became apparent to us. From neighbours, right through to bikers who travelled from all over the UK to visit the pub in its heyday, The Stamford Arms clearly left a lasting impression, not only on those who visited, but also those who admired its architectural qualities. As a local developer the significance of this building is not lost on us, indeed we have staff members who frequented the pub in its better days.

The passion shown for the buildings, particularly from the local residents, indicated to us that this would be no 'standard' planning application, and that a great deal of listening and learning from a wide range of stakeholders would be required to enable us to deliver a successful development for the site. The resulting conversations with local stakeholders, particularly the Parish, and the suggestions and feedback they produced have significantly informed our design development, leading to the production of a development that is a far cry from the one initially envisaged. From the removal of a proposed community building that was deemed surplus to requirements, to an increase in parking provision on site, this development is distinctly informed by local knowledge, and as a result is one that far better suits the needs and requirements of Little Bollington.

Whilst reopening the pub to its former use has proven to be an unsustainable proposition, through this development we are able to restore the building to ensure it has a sustainable future. This full preservation and restoration of the Stamford Arms buildings has been a key driver in our design development, and all other proposals on the site have been carefully weighed and appraised to realise this.

The new build homes have been carefully and sympathetically designed by Architects Project 3 to complement the main building whilst remaining subservient, and to suit the local vernacular without appearing pastiche. This, combined with the natural shielding gifted to the green belt by the site's existing established trees and hedgerows allows us to deliver a development that enables us to meet our key goals of saving the deteriorating buildings and providing affordable homes, whilst minimising impact to the green belt.

Throughout this process the site has thrown up many constraints, and along with the Covid-19 pandemic, we anticipate it to throw up many more in the months to come. However, these are challenges that we are prepared and eager to tackle as we push ahead with this development and look to invest in the local economy, protect a locally significant building, and deliver affordable and family homes for the area.”

Our thanks go to the entire project team who have worked incredibly hard to enable us to get to this position. The team includes Project 3 as Architects, Land Studio as Landscape Architects, Avison Young as Planning Consultants and Civic Engineers as Structural and Civil Engineers, with Little Betty Design and Dave & Co producing graphic materials.

We are currently in the process of building a webpage to record the history of the Stamford Arms Pub to ensure its memory is preserved for future generations. If you have any photographs, memories or stories of the pub and would like to have them included on the website, please contact: stamfordarms@novoproperty.co.uk.

Further information on the proposals can be found here.