Plans to build homes at Tony Martin farm withdrawn

Plans to convert barns which belonged to the farmer Tony Martin into housing have been withdrawn.

The project would have developed five barns into 10 dwellings, called Cow Croft Field Farm.

The site is home to Bleak House near Emneth in Norfolk, which hit the national headlines in 1999 when Martin shot two burglars, killing one of them.

Concerns were raised about the impact on wildlife and the suitability of the single track access road.

A request for a change of use from agricultural to residential was submitted in March 2026 by the couple Martin left his estate to – which is worth just over £2.5m - following his death last year.

Planning documents show that King's Lynn and West Norfolk Council's ecology officer raised concerns that no ecological assessment had been carried out.

She stated: "It is possible that protected species are present on site including breeding birds, reptiles and roosting bats and could be impacted by the proposals."

Norfolk County Council's highways team said the number of proposed dwellings was too high for the local infrastructure.

They said the single track access road would take an estimated 60 car movements a day if the development was allowed at its current size.

The barns are on the same site as Bleak House, which became infamous following the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Fred Barras in August 1999.

Barras had broken into the semi-derelict home on the Norfolk-Cambridgeshire with accomplice Brendon Fearon, 29.

They had travelled from Newark in Nottinghamshire that evening to raid the property at Emneth Hungate, where Martin stored antiques.

The farmer heard them, came down from an upstairs bedroom and opened fire with a pump-action shotgun.

Barras died at the farm while Fearon was treated in hospital for his injuries.

Martin was convicted of murder and jailed for life, but the charge was later downgraded to manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility and he was released in 2003.

It is not yet clear if new proposals for the site are planned.

Representatives of Jacqueline and David Wadley, who inherited Martin's estate, have been contacted for comment.

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