September 16, 2024 - the view from Sherford Community Park towards Pigeon Lane just last month(Image: Carl Eve/PlymouthLive)

£1billion Devon town's major transformation in just four years

So much has changed

by · DevonLive

After nearly two decades in the planning stages, the new town of Sherford began construction in 2016, with a commitment to construct 5,500 new homes, as well as schools, a leisure centre and shops.

The journey hasn't been without its challenges, with recent grievances about the lack of shops in the area, a redesign of water course routes and concerns over the quality of some of the homes. Despite this, construction workers have flooded the area and roads have been established linking Plymstock with Sherford and onto the A38.

By July 2016, the first brick was laid and by May 2017, around 40 homes at the £1billion new build town on the edge of Plymouth had already been sold.

The Sherford Consortium, a collaboration between Bovis Homes, Linden Homes and Taylor Wimpey has seen three councils - South Hams, Devon County and Plymouth City, work together to ensure the town is completed according to the planning permissions.

Over the past four years, we've been capturing images of the completion of Gemini Road and the construction of the section enclosed by Orion Drive and Pigeon Lane, as viewed from the Sherford Community Park, which is a popular vantage point to watch the town's growth.

The extenuating circumstances of the Covid pandemic and the series of lockdowns clearly impacted the pace of the development, as other areas of the new town are being developed even more rapidly, such as the new Urban Quarter area.

October 17, 2020 - the Covid lockdowns had slowed building work to an almost stop and the last section of Gemini Road has not yet been fiinished(Image: Carl Eve/PlymouthLive)
October 23, 2022 - The first few homes on Orion Drive are being built while Pigeon Lane is still just a muddy patch(Image: Carl Eve/PlymouthLive)
October 26, 2022 - the ground has been prepared and homes are going up along Orion Drive(Image: Carl Eve/PlymouthLive)