The Welborne Podcast

As 2024 draws to a close, some of our Welborne team look back on the year and review their highs, greatest challenges and where we are with the project, moving into 2025.

In an amazing feat of engineering, Welborne’s energy originates from the water in the beautiful chalk hills of the nearby South Downs. During this Welborne Out & About film, we speak to John Pickford from Portsmouth Water and our Technical Director from Welborne to find out more about how this amazing system works.

Welborne is about creating a place, not just about building houses. In this episode, Fiona Gray, Welborne’s Director of Place,  explains the plan to set up a construction skills and training centre and how, through the long-term development of Welborne, we will be able to drive local, social, and economic benefits to the local area.  

In this episode we talk to our brilliant ecological experts Jeff Picksley and Nicola French, from Holbury Consultancy Services who helped to create Welborne’s Biodiversity Enhancement Strategy. They will explain the importance of how habitats and wildlife have been placed at the heart of Welborne, as well as the restoration of previously intensively farmed agricultural land.

In this episode we speak to Phillip Fry, Owner of CG Fry & Son, who discusses his wonderful family history of the company and the importance of incorporating the local Hampshire vernacular within Welborne. We also catch up with joinery shop manager, James Ireland who started as an apprentice with CG Fry & Son, to go through the finer details of the joinery for Welborne homes.

Sustainability is central to the Welborne development and Thakeham’s timber frame construction enables the homes to be built in a more sustainable way and delivers better energy efficiency. In addition to the frames, the homes will have insulated floor beams and densely insulated walls and ceilings. To find out more, we spoke to Nem Lazarevic, Project Director from Thakeham, who will discuss how t...

In this episode Charlie will discuss the importance of stewarding, private landowners that have the foresight and vision to realise that good quality homes can be delivered at scale working with SMEs vs. the National plc model who want to see a quick return on capital. Welborne is a great example of a model working in partnership with housebuilders selected for their ability to deliver on a long t...

Mark will explore what is entailed in getting the groundworks right, from the very start and managing the complexities of development design, including training, apprenticeships and getting the right people in place for a project like Welborne.

Environmental impact is one of the first considerations to man-made projects, so how do you protect habitats and species whilst a site is being developed and maintain the ecological interests of the region. In this episode, Nicola and Jeff will explore the plans to make Welborne’s bio-diversity something which the community can embrace.

Ensuring the right infrastructure is there from the start, is absolutely crucial to a successful development. During this episode, Paul will talk about the innovative initiatives Welborne has committed to, including a groundbreaking ambient heat network system.

During this episode, Fiona will discuss bringing the local communities on the Welborne journey and establishing open community engagement before foundations are laid and homes are built.

During John’s episode he will look at how the landscape of housebuilding has changed over the last 30 years and what makes a standout scheme today. It is all in the detail we will discover!

Ensuring land and architecture flow together is what Kim Wilkie is all about. In this episode Kim will explore the importance of site history, soil and the wider context, as well as the importance of fluid connections for water, wildlife and humans.

In this episode Councillor Seán D T Woodward will take us back to how the Welborne venture first began following FBC’s identification of the land for a strategic development North of Fareham and discuss some of the challenges and key milestones along the way.

What are the key considerations integral in creating a beautiful new development that will stand the test of time and how different Welborne will be to other places that Ben Pentreath has designed such as Poundbury in Dorchester, Dorset.

Having a clean sheet of paper to deliver a new Garden Village could be daunting for most people, who aren’t traditional town planners nor developers. However, Mark Thistlethwayte saw this as a positive. In this episode, he will talk about how Welborne was born and what is fundamental to his approach in designing and delivering a new community fit for 100 years and more.

We're delighted to share the trailer for our upcoming Welborne podcast series, where we'll be talking to some of the talented individuals involved in the development of our one-of-a-kind project in Hampshire.   The series will feature some experts from the design world such as  Ben Pentreath , Welborne's Town Architect who will talk about  ⁠#TownPlanning⁠  and creating a sense of place...