Ex Isle of Wight factory is Folly Reach 'development opportunity'

The site is part of the Folly Reach development plan, on the former Saunders Roe factory.

In 2016, planning permission for the land, described as "naturally beautiful but redundant ...sitting alongside the eastern bank of the River Medina", was won via the Isle of Wight Council.

In 2021, a new road was to marked out with pegs and ropes, with developers under pressure to start work within five years of gaining permission.

Read more: Phase in Folly Works hotel and homes plan

Entrance to the ex Saunders Roe site at Whippingham, next to the Folly Inn. (Image: Google Maps)

What is the Isle of Wight's Saunders Roe (Saro) site at Whippingham's Folly Works?

• Next to the Folly Inn pub, the site has been used as a factory since the 1930s. 
• A wood laminate was made there and up until the the late 1940s, 40 per cent all all wood used for British aircraft was fabricated there, reports David White for the Isle of Wight County Press.
• In the 1960s, the factory moved into the production of laminated plastic products.
• The factory closed in 1990s and has been empty since then.

• Read more: Twelve Isle of Wight properties listed for auction in March

Now, agent Bray Fox Smith says the site is available as whole, or in separate lots, "in one of the highest value locations on the Island."

Permission was previously granted for a hotel, 14 business units, a new jetty, 82 houses and 17 flats.

Price is only available on application.

In 2014, Morrison Design produced an artist's impression of what it called the Folly Reach Hotel.

It called it a signature property in a secluded location. 

Access was to be via a new road from Beatrice Avenue, replacing the current Folly Lane route.