Five parks in two English counties and three in Scotland, all with a village community ethos.

Laird Estates has five parks in Scotland, Shropshire and Cheshire. It’s a family-run operation, started 25 years ago by Bill Laird.

The parks are Cunninghamhead and Bluebell Park in Ayrshire, Heather Bank Park in East Renfrewshire, Fairview Park in Cheshire and Warren Park in Shropshire.

Bill Laird’s first park, though, was in Ripon in Yorkshire. When his business expansion got going, his Scottish descent of which the family is fiercely proud led him to purchase two parks in Scotland. Today, the business is run by just three people – Bill, his wife, Marion, and their son, also Bill.

The Laird family are, thus, proudly living up to the definition of their family name as Scottish landowners.

Bill junior – full name William Craig James Angus Laird – takes up the story:

“My grandfather was Scottish. Dad always wanted to do something in terms of business in Scotland as a tribute to him. Cunninghamhead Estate was the first park he bought in Scotland, in 2003. Then, a year later, Heather Bank.”

The Lairds sold the park in Ripon in 2006 and threw their energy into the Scottish projects. It’s a constant process of development, Bill explains.

“Heather Bank is still in the development stage.”

We are chatting at Laird Estates’ Shropshire park, Warren Park, the company’s head office. They bought Warren Park (pictured here) 10 years ago.

“We started redevelopment here straight away, putting in new roads. We now have 45 plots,” says Bill.

Currently, there are six empty plots, three pre-owned homes and a show home to browse.
Warren Park is 20 minutes’ drive to the moving process Laird Estates smoothes the moving process with many options available to purchasers. There’s a part exchange scheme.

Bill explains how it works: “The buyers can move into the park home before we sell their property. We subsequently sell their house through an estate agent. It’s simple.

“It takes the stress out of moving house, and we take on estate agents and solicitors fees. We give the owners an extra week in their house so that they can take a week to move.”

That’s an element of the scheme much valued in smoothing the moving process, he tells us.

“We also use Quick Move. This agency purchases from the client; it’s another option.”

The Parks

Heather Bank is a 20-acre park. “We have permission for 145 homes; there are 30 there now. It’s only 20 minutes outside Glasgow, East Renfrewshire, on the Ayrshire side of Glasgow,” Bill tells me.

Cunninghamhead is three miles from the west coast at Irvine.

“We’ve only three left to sell there now.”

Bluebell Park is a new development, next to Cunninghamhead, but with its own separate entrance. Work there hasn’t yet started; that’s next year’s project.

“We have permission for 63 homes there,” says Bill.

I ask how just three people manage to run a business with such far-flung locations.

“We spend every other week in Scotland, and we’re all constantly travelling.”

Dad, mum and son work closely together. Bill junior has worked in the business since he left school. He’s now in his 20s and gets married next year.

“I’ve done a bit of everything. I used to be out daily in the winter with a shovel. I didn’t think it was the best but now I realise it was a good thing!”

The Laird ethos is all about trying to make the parks appealing places to live. At Warren Park, for example, there’s an annual garden competition. Hog roasts and charity events are periodically held in the area in the centre of the park known as the green.

It’s a parkland setting with a central rockery and a small water feature. Residents arrange barbecues on the green, too. Events like this are an important part of the Warren Park lifestyle.

“We try to create an old-fashioned village atmosphere where everyone looks after each other,” says Bill.

An important element of the Laird Estates appeal is the homes are set at different angles, with plots of differing size, to make the park look interesting and each plot has its own identity.

Wessex Canford show home

The Canford is sited on a large plot at the edge of Warren Park, with open field views. The entrance hall has a large cupboard with six double coat hooks, and plenty of space for shoes as you take them off at the door.

The lounge has delightful farmland views and bay windows on two sides to create style as well as letting in much light. The home comes fully furnished of course; two sofas are upholstered in a smart check fabric that nicely crosses the divide between cosy-cottage and modernity. A fireplace made of horizontally-aligned stone in grey shades contains a log burning-style stove to add to the cosy look.

The lounge is separate from the rest of the home; glass panelled doors lead to the dining area and kitchen.

Horizontally-aligned stone is a feature here, too; the kitchen walls are partly clad in grey and cream stone. Equipment includes a four-burner hob, an oven-grill, a large fridge-freezer, a small dishwasher and a washing machine.

Cupboards are an on-trend pastel shade of beige-green; all have soft-close doors. As we walk around we’re impressed by the quality of the furnishings; everything’s solid and heavy.

The dining room has a shaker-style sideboard and plainly appealing dining furniture.

From here the layout is unusual, with an inner hallway leading to the two double bedrooms.

And there’s a surprise: a small amount of loft space, ideal for items like suitcases, accessible through a trapdoor. The main bedroom has a large en suite, with a bath and over-bath shower.

The rock theme in the fireplace and kitchen appears also in the bathroom; the grey tiles around bath have a texture and a shine which glistens in the light from the ceiling-mounted spotlights.

Cream bedroom cabinets with natural wood tops look softly modern. Excellent wardrobe space is hidden behind all-mirrored doors. The second bathroom has a huge shower and follows the same styling theme as the en suite.

And the price? £185,000.