Priors Hall is a residential development currently being built on a partly despoiled and previously worked opencast site. As part of Corby’s regeneration strategy, the project will deliver 5,100 new homes in phased development over approximately twenty years. This includes a full parkland setting, formal town gardens and community open spaces including Local Nature Reserves and wild landscapes. The 1000-acre site includes several old quarries, one of which (‘The Gullet’) is to be conserved as part of the development.LUC has provided landscape design support for the project since 2007. The client, BeLa Partnership, is committed to “placemaking” in the broadest sense, making this an exciting project for us — here we need to work against the grain and explore the possibilities of wild landscape, biodiversity, social and community opportunities. The first residents of a population that will eventually reach about 12,500 residents are already in situ. To help create a sense of community we are working closely with them through the client team, involving them in the delivery of their own landscape, including planting projects and events.LUC landscape designers are in their element: this project requires progressive thinking, probing all opportunities and finding realistic solutions to deliver exciting and evolving results on the ground — of the moment and of the future. As well as Priors Hall residents, we are working here in partnership with David Lock Associates (Masterplanners), Clarke Bond (Civil Engineers), Lockhart Garratt (Arboriculture/Ecology) and the client, BeLa, to plan and deliver a quality landscape for the residents of the future.
