In Parts 1 and 2 of this article, I began to describe the property development antics of the four business associates who pocketed £124mn in profits from the Teesworks cash machine. This was followed by an exploration of the role of the Darlington Northern Link Road in the plans for Skerningham Garden Village (SGV).
Part 3
Parts 1 and 2 can be found here and here. In this part, I’ll tell how seemingly small-scale developments morphed into plans for the 1,200 acre, 4,500 house urban sprawl of SGV.
Skerningham Manor Farm
At the start of this century, multimillionaire property mogul Martin Corney owned Skerningham Manor Farm, which would later become the epicentre of SGV. The farm has historic significance; famed 18th-century cattle breeder Charles Colling lived here. A nearby farm cottage, also owned by Corney, is known as Low Skerningham. Charles Colling’s most famous beast, the Durham Ox, also known as the Ketton Ox, was born here. In this picture of Low Skerningham, taken in April 2026, a circular hedge can be seen at the centre. The cottage behind the hedge is a barn conversion, and it’s the birthplace of the Durham Ox:
Holy farm track!
Skerningham Manor and Low Skerningham are connected to the road network via a farm track known as Glebe Road, heading to the south West. ‘Glebe’ tells us that this is former church land. The powerful and wealthy Prince Bishops of Durham acquired vast swathes of the county. Successor organisations, such as the Diocese of Durham still own much of the land around here. More on that later. Glebe Road runs past a depression known as ‘Skerningham Lake’. The is a former gravel pit, which has been infilled. However, the central part has never drained, probably due to an underground spring. The lake is a haven for birdlife:
Will Skerningham ever have a railway station?
Just before entering the suburbs of Darlington, Glebe Road crosses the East Coast Main Line (ECML), which connects London and Edinburgh. If SGV ever gets built, the ECML will bisect the development. A railway station here could add to the sustainability of the project. But the chances of this happening are nil; train operators won’t tolerate slow, stopping trains disrupting their 125mph services:
This one isn’t a railway track
But, back at Low Skerningham, things started to stir in 2001. Martin Corney sought planning permission to build a second road to his properties. This 750 metre road would veer 90° away from Glebe Road, and head south east towards Barmpton Lane. You can see it on the map below:
We don’t like the sound of this
Local resident Brian Pavey spoke for a group of 18 objectors and appealed to Darlington councillors not to approve the plans. “There are already established public footpaths and stiles giving access to Mr Corney’s enterprise at Skerningham Manor from all four corners of the compass,” he said. “It is not difficult to see the long-term ambitions and aims of Mr Corney and his associates”. So, Mr Pavey had Martin Corney pegged right from the get go. It wasn’t about a ‘countryside gateway’. Mr Corney intended to buy Darlington Golf Club, offer the members a replacement site in Skerningham woods, and build a housing estate on the site of the golf club.
The boys from the black stuff
Three months later, in August 2001. rumours swirled that Darlington Golf Club, whose land bordered Mr Corney’s proposed new road, had agreed that the road could be tarmaced, and have security cameras installed, in exchange for usage rights. This aroused further suspicion that the new road wasn’t intended for access to Martin Corney’s farm. It would provide a second access road to Darlington Golf Club. The golf club secretary, George Storey, denied it, but the above map may give a clue to Martin Corney’s real intentions.
More than 18 holes
At meetings convened by the Tees Forest Partnership, local residents first learned of the golf club’s interest in shared use of the access road and that it – and Corney – had aspirations to develop greenfield land near the urban edge. The area was not earmarked for housing in the Darlington local plan. But even Brian Pavey couldn’t have dreamed that the plan to pave over Darlington Golf Club represented just a fraction of Martin Corney’s ambitions for Skerningham.
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot
In January 2003, as a starter for the lavish SGV main course to follow, Corney applied for planning permission to build five dwellings, a car park and a ‘visitor centre’ next to the listed building of Low Skerningham. Anyone who knows this remote and isolated spot would wonder why you’d want to build a visitor centre here.
Better luck next time
Martin Corney tried to mitigate the application by promising to plant a community woodland. But Darlington Council wasn’t having it, although the ‘refusal letter’ wasn’t published until 2024. Corney soon returned with a scaled back plan. Only three dwellings, which would be conversions of existing properties. Permission was granted. Interestingly, the applicant address on the June 2003 application was Martin Corney’s mansion at Elstob Hall, not the Heighington one given five months earlier.
A pattern is emerging
There’s something striking about the planning permission requests for Skerningham Manor and Low Skerningham: It’s the sheer number of them, more than 80. New houses and out-buildings, new roads, hedgerow removal; the assault on nature is relentless.
I like trees, me
In 2004, the UK government created Tees Forest, one of 12 ‘community forests’ throughout the UK. As part of the initiative, local landowners could apply to the Forestry Commission to plant trees. Corney applied for, and received, two grants totalling £59,454. As part of the grant conditions, the trees couldn’t be felled for 20 years.
And they all lived happily ever after
Things went quiet at Skerningham Woods for a while. That’s how the wildlife likes it. Martin Corney turned his attention elsewhere. In 2007, he teamed up with his stepfather and business associate, multimillionaire property mogul Ian Waller, for a new venture. The two men formed Theakston Farms LLP, with a view to creating a 217 acre site for 48 ‘lodges’ and 330 static caravans next to Hardwick Park Country Park in Sedgefield. The planning authority, Sedgefield District Council, quite rightly rejected this outrageous try-on in July 2008. But Theakston entities almost always appeal unsuccessful planning applications, and this was no exception.
Bringing in the big guns
And so, a planning inspector heard the appeal at a six-day public inquiry two months later. Theakston Farms LLP’s barrister Christopher Katkowski CBE KC was instructed by Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners. Expense is never an object to Martin Corney when it comes to planning applications. A friendly reminder that planning within the three Tees Valley Mayoral Development Corporations is outsourced to Lichfields. The Tees Valley Combined Authority’s finance chief had to cap Lichfields’ fees in December 2025. But even with this heavy artillery, Corney was unable to win over the planning inspector with his concrete and tarmac confection, and the appeal was refused. Corney quietly dissolved Theakston Farms LLP in 2016.
When one door closes, another one opens
But the Tees Valley property moguls never keep still. In April 2014, the Conservative government launched the Garden Cities initiative. The launch was cynically couched in terms of false nostalgia for true garden cities such as Port Sunlight in Cheshire and Bournville in Worcestershire. Clean, green, plenty of community facilities, somewhere to safely raise the children. Brownfield sites would be encouraged. Good luck with that. In reality, this was a green light for property developers to tear up the countryside and replace it with a car-dependent urban sprawl.
Getting set for action
And the property developers knew it. In August 2014, Martin Corney created Theakston Estates (Investments) Limited, followed by Theakston Estates (Skerningham) Ltd in November 2015. As is usually the case with companies containing the word “Theakston”, the registered office of these companies is Ian Waller’s villa, Southlands, in Eaglescliffe.
Better luck next time
In January 2017, the government announced the first 14 garden villages. None of them would be in the North East. But Theakston Estates (Investments) wasn’t deterred. It proposed a 400-house scheme next to Flatts Lane Woodland Country Park in the Normanby suburb of Middlesbrough. A ‘mini garden village’ if you will. Redcar & Cleveland Council, the planning authority, refused the application. But the usual playbook went into effect, and an appeal went to the Planning Inspectorate. Mr Corney’s business associate and multimillionaire property mogul Chris Harrison led the appeal, and the property moguls won this time.
Bull in a China shop
But Martin Corney had already sent the bulldozers into the Flatts Lane site even before asking for planning application, destroying two ponds used as watering holes by the roe deer, and polluting a third one with red diesel.
Can you ever trust politicians?
And things would soon be looking even better for Tees Valley bulldozer fans. As the first election for a Tees Valley Mayor loomed ahead in May 2017, Conservative candidate Ben Houchen pledged to build two garden villages as part of his campaign. The two garden villages that would eventually emerge would be Skerningham, backed by Martin Corney, and multimillionaire property mogul Chris Musgrave’s Wynyard Park. Corney and Musgrave would later be the Joint Venture partners who secured a 90% stake in the Redcar steelworks regeneration project. This Teesworks deal was coordinated by Ben Houchen and two of the statutory officers of the South Tees Development Corporation (STDC).
Turbocharging SGV
In Part 4 of this article, I’ll describe how the election of Ben Houchen as Tees Valley Mayor in May 2017 supercharged plans for the SGV project.
Further Reading
The gang of four: how a cabal of property moguls is laying waste to the Tees Valley
The gang of four: How a cabal of property moguls is laying waste to the Tees Valley (Part 2)
