At the north west corner of our property lies the apple storage barn built in the early 1970s and for which we had outline planning permission to be allowed to convert it to a holiday let. The previous owners who had established the planning permission had in 2003, as a condition of that permission, constructed a new driveway that winds approximately 150m across the land from the east boundary (where the road is) to the barn on the west side of the property. They had done this by digging down to a depth of approximately 450mm and grading the roadway so that it could handle heavier traffic. They also had to build a ‘bridge’ across the wet ditch just next to the road. When we acquired the property the driveway was perfectly adequate but had no surface mettle or the likes. With our intention to finally convert the barn to a holiday let and rent it out on Airbnb (other property rental organisations are available) we wanted to make the driveway a bit more of a feature as it would be the first thing visitors would see upon arrival.
Various options were considered including a tarmac topping (too expensive and out of keeping), block paving (similar issues) and turfmesh (too much maintenance). Ultimately, we decided to go with gravel and edge it with either sleepers or concrete edging with the edging eventually winning out due to the permanence and cost. 20mm limestone gravel was settled upon for the aggregate and it was estimated around 60 tonnes would be required as we also wanted to build a car parking area outside the barn. Additionally approximately 300 concrete edgings would also need to be sourced and laid in dry concrete as part of the project. Luckily we had ordered all the materials just before the Coronavirus pandemic hit in early 2020 and as we went into 'lockdown' we had just finished installing a new gate across the drive and set back from the original one to avoid complications with trying to set gateposts into shallow ground that was just above the bridge. So as 'lockdown' began we started digging out and laying the kerb edgings at the barn end including setting out the parking area and over the course of the first part of 'lockdown' worked steadily up the driveway edging it and pinning out weed protection matting across the width as we went.
Work starts at the barn end of the driveway with the concrete edgings being installed.
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