FPDSavills have been instructed by HM Prison Service to sell the surplus land adjoining HMP Swinfen for a guide price in the region of £338,000 – £428,000. The property is located in Staffordshire between Lichfield and Tamworth.
The land as a whole includes about 175 acres (70.8 hectares) of agricultural land, woodland and water. There is a range of modern general purpose farm buildings and a Victorian boathouse which requires restoration. The lake embankment requires some raising and improvement works which offers some potential for landfill. Further lots include a walled garden with ‘bothy’, originally part of Swinfen Hall, and various grass paddocks and woodland.
Informal discussions with the local planning authority have proved sympathetic towards a change of use to leisure including the development of a golf course with clubhouse. There is also potential for conversion of the boathouse to a small cottage and conversion of the bothy into ancillary accommodation in keeping with the setting of a Grade II listed building.
HMP Swinfen Hall was originally part of the Swinfen Estate and owned by Colonel Michael Swinfen Broun. On Colonel Broun’s death the estate was left to the Cathedral and City of Lichfield. The Government bought a section of the estate as part of its prison network and sold Swinfen Hall, a Grade II listed mansion which is now operated as a hotel and restaurant. A young offenders institution is still operated by HM Prison Service and is located nearby.
“This sale should attract a wide variety of interest,” said Sarah Payne of FPDSavills Leisure Department, “not only from farmers and landowners but also from those purchasers who are interested in seeking alternative leisure and residential uses.”
For further information contact Sarah Payne, FPDSavills Leisure Department, Banbury, Oxfordshire Tel: 01295 228012
FPDSavills www.fpdsavills.co.uk/golf