THE Ashgrove Estate – home of filmmaker Guy Ritchie – has applied for permission to remove an ‘ugly’ modern barn and replace it with a number of more traditional cabins.

TFH Reeve, on behalf of the estate, has applied to Wiltshire Council for permission to install nine cabins – six for guests, three for staff – at Ashgrove Farm, at Ashmore.

The buildings would replace an ‘ugly’ barn and act as accommodation for people attending shoots and private events at the site, the application says.

TFH Reeve/Wiltshire Council

“The Ashgrove Estate, the long-time home of the film maker Guy Ritchie, has always been known for its world famous shoot, and this remains the core business, but there has always been a vision that the estate should be an economic hub in the countryside,” the application says.

The farm yard, which has seen traditional buildings restored, is also home to the director’s Gritchie brewery, as well as the shoot.

“The original traditional greenstone buildings of the Ashgrove Farm courtyard have been the subject of care full restoration and conversion over the years,” the application said.

“This has culminated in the restoration of the farm house and the rebuilding of the upper barn as a traditional building.

“The farm yard now houses the successful brewery, the famous shoot and the shoot facilities that support it. There has also been an extensive planting scheme around the yard that will come to maturity in the coming years.

“A major long-term development among the products, has been the cabin. This has now reached an early production stage.

“The form, a single cabin, will now be trialled with a number of internal finishes and fit outs, including a basic model trialled as site accommodation for the staff.”

The application seeks permission for the cabins for five years, to ‘real-life road test the concept, utilising the shoot guests and occasional events’.

TFH Reeve/Wiltshire Council

The cabins would be screened by an ‘extensive planting scheme’, it added, with the cabins themselves being single storey, timber clad with a low

curved shepherds hut style roof in lead in a ‘muted palette’ which should ‘sit happily amid the planting’.

The large, modern barn would be removed, ‘leaving only the attractive traditional buildings including the brewery and a scatter of cabins within the trees’.

Film director Ritchie, 54, bought the estate – including Ashcombe House – with then-wife Madonna in 2001 and took sole ownership after the pair’s divorce in 2008.

For more details, and to comment on the plans, log on to www.wiltshire.gov.uk and search for application reference PL/2023/00941.