Tag Archives: self-build

Huge Eco-Friendly Self-Build

Published by Homebuilding & Renovating
on Saturday, 18 December 2010
At 1,550m2, just how does John and Leigh Croft’s self-built Cotswolds home justify our Award as Britain’s Best Eco Home? 

If ever a self-build project could be deemed ambitious, it’s the new 1,550m2 (yes, it’s some 21 times larger than the UK average) home of John and Leigh Croft in the Cotswolds, east of Cheltenham. For the big story here is not just that it ever managed to happen in the first place – the planning process wasn’t particularly run of the mill – but that it can also claim with some justification to be an absolutely A1, top-of-the-class, eco-friendly home, despite its whopping size.

This being a plot within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in the middle of open countryside in the Cotswolds, John and Leigh’s vision of building a contemporary family home was always likely to meet resistance.

It was actually the conservation officer …