If you’re anything like me, some of your finer television-watching moments have been sitting on the edge of your seat watching Top Gear‘s infamous character, Stig take workhorses around a test track in the middle of England. I hope you weren’t too fond of the track because it’s about to become a housing development.
That’s right, Top Gear‘s beloved test track is being demolished to make room for McMansions and community dwellings, or at least that’s what the Dunsfold Park development team has finally had approved. Since 2016, the company has sought the land to be used for the development of businesses and homes, and it all came to fruition last Thursday when the company received formal approval to begin demolishing the existing infrastructure.
It’s not like we didn’t know this was coming. The plans were in the works for some time, but now that the approval has gone through, it’s all but set in stone.
The airdrome turned private airfield will be stripped of its roads, buildings torn down, and its rich history flattened to make room for a business park and a village of homes. In its place will be 1,800 homes and businesses that are said to employ upwards of 900 people and help to provided services to the community to help make it self-sufficient. Aptly named, the area where the current runway sits will become absent of pavement and flourish in green, touting the name “Runway Park.”
This change means that Top Gear will need to find a new location to film, and talks of putting cars against Hammerhead and Gambon will be things of the past. And it’s not just Top Gear that’s losing a notable location; other movies, like Casino Royale, The Da Vinci Code, and World Car Z have also been filmed at the airfield. But at least it will be a cool story for residents to tell people what used to be right on their front lawn. Now let’s just get the old Kia Ceed parked in someone’s driveway and you’ll have my attention.