Amid the farmlands of Shropshire sits the hamlet of Stoke-on-Tern, and a park home estate with a beautiful parkland aspect. It’s close to the Shropshire-Cheshire border, with the town of Market Drayton four miles away and the pretty Cheshire village of Audlem 12 miles away.
Warren Park, owned by the Laird family who also have parks in Scotland and Cheshire, is conveniently less than 20 miles from the M6. The route to the park took us through the character market town of Nantwich where the architecture is spectacular; we marked this down as a delightful place to visit regularly if you choose Warren park as your home base. We discovered Audlem, too; quaint, unspoiled and with coffee shops and other eateries, before heading out among the narrow lanes of Shropshire. A feeling of remoteness is a strong appeal, we decided, as we neared Stoke-on-Tern – yet Warren park is conveniently close to amenities.
Warren Park is fabulously immaculate, each garden beautifully designed with shrubs and pots, paving and little areas of loose stones. A good number of the homes are new here so the whole park has a very up-to-date modern look. This park really showcases the appeal of park living.
The park is surrounded by agricultural land. Homes on the edge of the park have open field views.
Some plots have secluded garden areas bordered by wooden fencing – an unusual feature on a park home estate – to create privacy. One home, on the fringe of the park, has a covered verandah area. Everywhere, it’s obvious that much thought has gone into garden design here. Some gardens have tasteful little statues; some metal, some ceramic; others have feature fencing. Mature trees and a rockery define Warren Park’s ‘village green’ where residents organise barbecues. Some of the homes over look this delightful area with mature trees and saplings.
Some homes have raise terraces where barbecues and rattan dining furniture stand waiting for the sunshine to return. Even on the dull day of our visit this time, Warren Park looks a gorgeous place in which to live.
Three plots are available and there are two showhomes, a Prestige Homeseeker Concerto and a Wessex Dorset.
The Prestige Concerto is spacious and gorgeous, on a large plot bordered by wooden fencing and with parking space for two cars. The garden is already laid with lawn and a bed containing shrubs and flowers. The driveway is block paved.
The Concerto’s main entrance is at the front. It suits this plot perfectly. A second door leads from the kitchen along the side into the garden.
The Concerto is a magnificent home with a layout that’s much more akin to one you might find in a bricks-and-mortar home than a park home. The kitchen is totally separate from the enormous lounge and dining area which wrap around it. The angled wall on which the large fireplace sits creates an interesting shape in the kitchen on the other side of the wall. Here, the angle forms part of the breakfast bar work surface. We love the idea of breakfast bar within the kitchen – think lunch, coffee times too; this feature makes the kitchen the hub of the home. The leather upholstered breakfast bar high-chairs on chunky chrome bases are both stylish and comfortable.
Ample storage space and surface space are important elements of the kitchen. Unusually, the (four) burner hob is above the oven, nicely keeping the cooking equipment together in a traditional arrangement. One aspect of this kitchen that we like is the ability to close the door, keeping cooking aromas out of the rest of the home – an unusual feature in a park home.
The colour palette throughout the Concerto is fawns, in a variety of shades and textures, creating a calm décor. There are classical elements in the furnishing scheme: the traditional three-piece suite in tactile plain fawn is gorgeous, and the dining area has a sideboard. The plain styling of the matt fawn dining suite with oak table top and matching sideboard is lovely.
The matt fawn styling theme appears in both bedrooms. In the master bedroom it’s in the form of a large dressing table flanked by wardrobes. The second bedroom has a chest of drawers, bedside cabinets and a cleverly designed wardrobe which extends within the wall to almost twice the size of its double doors.
Grey tiles with a lustre pattern inject high quality wow-factor to both the en suite and bathroom.
The Dorset is a more compact option. It’s on a plot much smaller than that of the Concerto. The Dorset is beautiful cosy, with a log effect stove on a marble hearth as the focal point of the lounge. Rustic meets modern here, with light oak coffee tables with drawers and a three piece suite – the settee is cream and the chairs are rich plum shade. Plum cream and a mere suggestion of green meld together in plaid pattern curtains and cushions. It’s a lovely scheme, interesting in detail and charming in overall effect.
The kitchen gets a splash of deep aubergine shade in the form of the glass splash back, an unusual design with a glass base and a pan trivet in two sections, easy to remove for cleaning.
Gloss fawn units and beveled-edge cream tiles work really well.
At one of Laird Estates’ parks in Scotland, Heather Bank, in East Renfrewshire, half an hour from the Ayrshire coast, a new showhome has just arrived. It’s a Stately-Albion Chatsworth Gold, a new model, 50ftx20ft.
There are a total of three showhomes on this park, the others being a Stately-Albion Platinum Topaz and a Stately-Albion Wentwood.
There’s currently a refurbished, pre-owned home for sale at this park. It’s a 40ftx20ft Stately-Albion Tredegar, at £95,000.
Heather Bank Park, amid rolling moorland of the Scottish lowlands, also has a new Marketing Suite and office.
Laird Estates offers a part-exchange scheme for homes on all of its parks. Bill Laird explains: “This is how we make moves happen for people - easily and without hassle or delay.
“We can give 100% of market value nationwide. We take care of solicitors’ fees. There’s no chain and no estate agent fees.”
Warren Park, Laird Estates Residential Park Homes
Stoke-on-Tern, Shropshire TF9 2DZ
lairdestates.co.uk