A beloved Somerset farm shop will close its doors for the final time this summer to make way for a new housing development.

Beechcroft Land Ltd. was granted permission by Sedgemoor District Council in March 2021 to build 20 new homes at Carrott’s Farm Shop on the A38 Bridgwater Road in North Petherton, near the town’s cemetery, writes Local Democracy Reporter Daniel Mumby.

The site has subsequently been acquired by the Taunton-based Summerfield Homes, with construction on the new homes due to begin in the summer.

With this in mind, the farm shop will close in July – though owner Tony Carrott hopes he will be able to reopen the business at a new location in the following months.

Carrott’s Farm Shop was started by Mr Carrott’s father in 1969, beginning as a mobile grocery business which delivered orders by a converted milk float for 20 years.

Mr Carrott and his father used a calving shed on the site as their base, but converted it into a farm shop once the mobile trading ended, adding a false ceiling and better lighting along with greenhouses and growing tunnels so produce could be grown on site.

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The homes which will be built on the farm shop’s current location will range in size from two- to four bedrooms and will include a number of affordable units.

Ed Khodabandehloo, managing director of Summerfield Homes said: “We are pleased to have acquired the land currently occupied by Carrott’s Farm Shop and look forward to bringing 20 new homes to the market in the spring of 2023.”

Summerfield Homes (also known as Summerfield Developments) is currently delivering the third phase of the Killams Park development in southern Taunton, as well as building 250 new homes at the Liddymore Park site in Watchet.

The developer also hopes to build a further 26 homes on Back Lane in Middlezoy, though a decision on this application has not yet been made.