Diverse farm business serving the local community

The Giffard family approached Rural Solutions with a vision for the creation of a new family attraction which would help to diversify their business, serve the community and make a positive contribution to the local economy. They sought to convert redundant farm buildings into an adventure play experience to create a place which would be both entertaining and engaging for children, and enjoyable and relaxing for adults.

Rural Solutions supported the journey of this new leisure enterprise from initial concept through to design and planning. Hockerhill Adventure Playbarn opened to great acclaim in 2023.

Photography (c) Charlie Giffard

Objective

To enable the creation of a day visitor attraction offering indoor and outdoor play facilities that are engaging and challenging for children.

The attraction offers high quality food and beverage along with an exciting and educational experience for children, which fulfils the vision of the family owners.

Approach

We worked with the family from concept to completion, initially assessing the feasibility of the concept and shaping a viable and deliverable proposal and associated planning strategy. We designed a scheme that saw the conversion of an existing farm building and incorporated a sustainable, open play space using materials sourced from the wider estate, such as timber used for cladding on the exterior of the building. Working alongside renowned children’s play designers Cap.Co, an engaging indoor and outdoor play concept was created.

To obtain planning consent on this Green Belt site, we worked collaboratively with South Staffordshire District Council and brought together the expertise of our multi-disciplinary planning and design team to overcome a range of issues and secure the support of the community and highways authority to deliver a positive planning outcome.

Following planning consent, detailed architectural work was carried out by the Rural Solutions design team. This posed its own set of challenges, due to the rise in construction costs risking the scheme’s viability, requiring innovative thinking and value engineering to deliver the scheme within budget.

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