In early 2006 the Stonewall estate was sold to property developers Stonewall Manor Ltd., an offshore company with a business address in Jersey.  The new owners divided up the estate, separating the historic buildings from parts of the wider gardens.  They then sold the Manor, and put its cottages and a small part of the garden up for sale by auction in late February 2006.  By good fortune the two cottages were sold to a Lower Keyford resident who wishes to live in them and keep them intact, thus maintaining the spirit and heritage of the place.  The property developers, however, kept one parcel of land to the north west of the estate for their own purposes.  This site has no houses on it, only a tennis court and small pavilion or summer house, some mature fruit trees, and one of the several magnificent beech trees that for decades have stood sentinel over the community of Lower Keyford.  Documents in Frome Museum show that this part of the Stonewall estate has been an orchard for something approaching 300 years, so even though the existing fruit trees are not as old as that, they are part of a long local tradition. Image courtesy of Somerset Standard

Local Concerns

In the spring of 2006 the property developers applied for planning permission to build a terrace of six town houses  - four 3-bedroomed properties and two 2-bedroomed - on this remaining part of the Stonewall estate, close to the rear of properties on Stevens Lane (Link to planning application).  The plans flew in the face of recommendations of Mendip District Council’s historic buildings officer, who had formally advised the owners in April 2005 that he would be unlikely to support proposals that resulted in a significant subdivision of the garden area of Stonewall Manor, adding ‘This application virtually disregards all [my] advice and results in a most unsatisfactory situation’.  Local residents revived POLKA (the Protection of Lower Keyford Area) and lobbied local councillors to win support for their objections to the scheme, which they felt seriously threatened the character, infrastructure and heritage of Lower Keyford.  Local residents, Frome Town Council and the Frome Civic Society were among those who sent some forty letters of objection to Mendip District Council, together with a petition of hundreds of signatures protesting at the planning proposals.

First Plans Withdrawn

In July 2006, in the face of such widespread opposition and faced with the clear prospect of having their plans rejected by the planning authority, the developers withdrew their initial proposals.  The dangers, however, have not gone away.

Wildlife in Peril

The historic orchard site has benefited from being uninhabited over centuries.  Wildlife has flourished.  Residents in neighbouring properties have counted over a dozen species of birds including green woodpeckers and tawny owls flying among the old trees. More significantly still are other regular visitors: in August 2005 it was noted in the Somerset Environmental Record that bats had been seen on and around the great beech tree and within one kilometer of the site.   In February 2006 POLKA members picketed outside the auction of the cottages and coach-house, distributing leaflets drawing attention to the risk posed to wildlife on the site if it were developed for houses; the developer was approached but brushed away the leaflets, saying, “I don’t care about any of this.”  In September 2006 POLKA then tried to force Mendip District Council to require a full, independent environmental survey before it formally received any subsequent planning application; but Mendip council is not signed-up to the relevant environmental legislation.  As such it has no alternative but to register the new application.

Trees Destroyed


In February 2006 POLKA members had helped protect the whole site by obtaining a Tree Preservation Order (TPO) from Mendip District Council.  However, after the initial planning application was withdrawn in July 2006 the council failed to confirm the provisional tree protection order, even though it was aware that legally protected species had been recorded on the site.  The lapse of the TPO enabled the developer to fell the trees without incurring legal penalty.  Flying in the face of advice from their own arboricultural consultant, and in direct contravention of written assurances by their planning consultant to Mendip District Council, during the August Bank Holiday 2006 the developers cut down all the mature trees on the site: apple and plum trees in the orchard, and the great beech itself. The planning consultant who had earlier assured Mendip District Council that the development would ‘preserve the character and appearance of the area’ oversaw the felling work himself.

Worse to Come?

With so many of the developer’s earlier assurances clearly abandoned or betrayed, local residents now fear even worse destruction of their local historic and natural environment, and damage to the spirit of place.  A new application has been submitted by the developer for (yet again) six ‘mews’ houses – an application which we fear is likely to be no more sympathetic in environmental, architectural or community terms than its predecessor.  POLKA members are not against development: we want to see the site put to sympathetic use.

back to top