Impney Hall & Estate
Impney Hall & Estate
Surrounded by a 140-acre estate, Impney Hall is a Grade II* listed historic house built in 1873 for the saltworks magnate John Corbett, situated north of Droitwich Spa. The Hall, designed in the style of a French chateau and described by Pevsner as “the showiest of them all in the county”, operated for many years as a 106-bed hotel and conference centre, resulting in a number of unsympathetic additions.
Following the closure of the hotel in 2020, plans emerged for the retention of Impney Hall as a boutique hotel and restaurant, with many of the twentieth-century extensions demolished. As heritage consultants, our objective was to prioritise Impney Hall and its setting whilst redeveloping the existing buildings within the site to create a revitalised estate where people would aspire to live and work. We first consulted on a new masterplan of the estate by LDA Design which aimed to improve access and sustainable travel through new pedestrian and cycle routes. This included John Corbett Way, a public right of way across the Estate, which will allow visitors to enjoy views of the historic parkland and experience the original arrival route to Impney Hall. We then advised on proposals for the new housing village of ‘Little Impney’, comprising 125 news homes designed by Proctor & Matthews Architects, on the site of the demolished conference buildings. Finally, we consulted on proposals by Oliver Architecture for the restoration and renewal of the main Hall building, which involved improvements to the external fabric of the building and a sensitive new fit-out for the interiors.
We judged that the proposals produced a substantial heritage benefit to the historic and architectural significance and setting of Impney Hall and that they also delivered beneficial enhancements to the Green Belt by improving access and opportunities for outdoor recreation, enhancing biodiversity, improving degraded landscapes and allowing greater appreciation of heritage assets within the estate. The planning submission was approved in 2022.
Architects: Proctor & Matthews Architects, LDA Design and Oliver Architecture
Client: Greyfort Group
Left-photo courtesy of: Bs0u10e01 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0