Kintbury retirement village show suites open

Inglewood House, Templeton Road, Kintbury is currently being transformed into a 94-unit retirement village for the over-55s.
The development, costing about £25m, is due to open in March and the two show suites on the site, the Kintbury and the Hungerford, are already being opened up for potential residents to look around.
The site, which spans more than 36-acres, was previously home to Inglewood Health Hydro and Spa, which closed in 2004.
The complex will feature a restaurant, bar, lounge, library, swimming pool, gymnasium and fitness and treatment rooms, and many of the facilities will be available for general public membership, as well as for residents.
There will also be a 24-hour concierge service and a care service, so residents can be treated for ailments within their own homes.
The general manager of the estate for Audley Inglewood, Tom Graham (pictured right), said that giving residents the care they needed in their homes, while maintaining their independence, was a key attribute of the development.
He added: “We want to bring a community to Kintbury, but I’m also very keen to bring the community into Inglewood as well.
“The people coming here will be living here, and we hope that will please Kintbury people who are running businesses.”
Initially, residents had raised concerns about the level of construction traffic the development would generate.
Mr Graham said that the planning and building works had been long term processes.
“I think we have got past the historical negative perspective – the neighbours have been really great.”
Newbury MP Richard Benyon (pictured left), who visited the site last week, said that he was thrilled about the number of jobs that would be created.
“This is what this site has needed for a long time.
“The wealth this will bring will be great for the whole local community and for the village.”
He said that the construction traffic in a development of this scale was always going to have an impact, but he added that the villagers had appreciated the discipline by workers in keeping
the traffic out of the village and added: “Everyone I have spoken to feels it’s an investment that will be a massive benefit.”
Once a private estate, Inglewood House was bought by the Catholic de la Salle brothers in 1928 as a training centre for young men taking religious orders. In the 1970s, it was sold and
transformed into a health hydro which, in 1981, was bought by a consortium headed by the then MP and businessman Jonathan Aitken.
In 1995, it hit the national headlines when The Guardian alleged that Mr Aitken had tried to procure women for visiting Saudi princes at the hydro – a claim he rejected – and which prompted his now infamous “bent and twisted journalism” speech, a libel writ against The Guardian and his subsequent fall from grace when he was found guilty of perjury.
Following spells of ownership by Grosvenor Spas Ltd, and Purdew Health Farm Group, the spa was closed in 2004.
It was bought by Raven Audley Court for a retirement village in 2006 and, in 2009, permission was granted to demolish the rest of Inglewood House on condition that it was rebuilt in modern materials so that its appearance was unchanged.