Cornwall Eden Project's Tim Smit orchard cookery bid at Loswithiel

Sir Tim shared a video last year about his plans for Gillyflower Farm on the site of the former Lostwithiel Golf Course and now a planning application for the development has been submitted to Cornwall Council.

The application is to build a “new centre for the teaching and learning of agronomy” along with an owner/manager’s house and 20 accommodation 'drums'.

Agronomy is the science and technology of using plants in agriculture for food, fuel and land restoration.

Under the plans Gillyflower Farm will have a main building – The Hub – which will have facilities for lectures and learning along with a cafe/restaurant, exhibition spaces, market area and cookery school.

There will also be 20 'drums' where visitors can stay and, at the opposite end of the site, a house for the owner/manager.

A design and access statement submitted with the planning application explains that Sir Tim, along with his son Alex, purchased the former golf course in 2016.

They bought the site with a view of turning two-thirds of it into “the greatest rare orchard in Europe”. To date 2,972 fruit trees have been planted and there are plans for 1,000 more.

The site has been renamed Gillyflower Farm after an apple variety which was discovered in a cottage garden near Truro in around 1813.

The statement explains: “Sir Tim and Alex have drawn on their experience and knowledge of working at The Lost Gardens of Heligan over the last 30 years, in protecting rare heritage varieties of fruits and vegetables that have disappeared from the popular food canon, and their ambition for Gillyflower Farm is to grow these rare European vegetables and allow the public to taste them, via a new cookery school and tasting kitchen.

“Their objective is to cultivate a range of crops that can be grown by partner farmers and become a new range of economic crops that allows Lostwithiel to develop into a centre for the development of new food crops.

“To achieve the aims and objectives of this project, there is a need to provide a new facility that is purpose made and suitable to cater for the needs of the teaching and training of the would-be horticulturalists, amateur gardeners and horticultural students that will visit and stay at Gillyflower Farm.

“This new facility is to be contained within a new main building on the site called The Hub. This building will contain exhibition, teaching and demonstration spaces, a market area, a cafe/restaurant with associated kitchen, cookery school and tasting kitchen as well as a microbrewery, distillery, cider and fruit presses, and of course, a fruit storage area designed to enable the fruit to ripen naturally.”

Turning to the accommodation it adds: “To ensure that Gillyflower Farm is accessible to all who wish to visit and learn the proposed scheme also includes 20 accommodation units – called The Drums – of various sizes, from single storey, one-bed units to two storey, three-bed units.

“The Drums are to be made available for short term rent to people visiting and/or studying at Gillyflower Farm. These visiting groups could be single people, couples, friendship groups, families, students or business groups.”

The statement explains that the golf course has been “painstakingly resculpted and renewed” to create a nine-hole course. This will be available to locals and visitors.

It adds: “We propose that Gillyflower Farm can achieve the objective of becoming a world class leisure and professional learning facility and will become an essential place for horticultural students to visit to gain invaluable experience linked with the already established learning facilities at the Eden Project, The Lost Gardens of Heligan and the Tresco Abbey Garden on the Isles of Scilly.”

The planning application was submitted last week and there is no date set for when it will be decided.