200 homes are planned for historic site

The ssite on which the fire took hold has a longg and storied past.

Kennt Wool Growers began as a farming coo-operative in 1920, with 73 members oowning shares in the farm retailers.

At iits height, more than 4,000 supporteed the shops, which sold a range of iteems including clothing, shooting accesssories and vet medicines.

All three sites - Ashford, Eastry and Handdcross, East Sussex - closed when the coompany went into administration in Auugust 2017, putting 48 people out of woork.

Butt the Kent Wool Growers site has remaained in the news ever since.

Bruundrett House, next to the Town and CountryC Store that went up in flamees, was ‘unzipped’ by architectural artistt Alex Chinneck last November in anticcipation of the eventual Tannery Lane development plan.

Devveloper U+I originally hoped to buildd 254 apartments on the 2.9 acres of land. However councillors sent it back to thee drawing board over a range of issues, including Cllr Winston Michael brandding it a “monstrosity”.

Retuurning to the planning committee, the sccheme was amended to 200 homes.

All of the buildings currently there will be knocked down to make way for the residential blocks, with one exception.

The earliest building on the Kent Wool Growers site is Whist House, a Grade II*-listed mansion which was built by Richard Greenhill in 1707.

Mr Greenhill - a businessman, tanner and clockmaker by trade - was the first of many occupants, the last of which left the property in 1995. It has since been neglected, however bosses behind the Tannery Lane development want to return the building to public use.

A restaurant capable of sitting 106 diners will fill the space, with 66 of those being catered for in a proposed modern extension. A bar will also be located in Whist House.

Failing that, the council has approved a fall-back scheme to bring the abandoned building back into residential use comprising a four-bedroom house.

It is not yet known when work will begin on the new homes.