With its patchwork of farmland, thatched Tudor cottages, traditional pub and church mentioned in the Domesday Book, Salford Priors appears to embody the image of a quintessential English village.

Yet residents in the picturesque Warwickshire community and neighbouring villages along the Worcestershire border are fiercely opposing plans for what could become one of Britain’s largest solar farms.

Campaigners fear the development would transform productive farmland into what they describe as a “crystal desert”, with reflected sunlight affecting nearby communities and important wildlife habitats being lost.

Known as the Arrow Valley Solar project, the scheme would cover around four square miles. Solar panels and battery storage facilities would be divided into four areas spanning Warwickshire and Worcestershire, linked by an extensive underground cable network.

Because of its size, the proposal has been designated a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP). It could produce as much as 500 megawatts of electricity—enough to supply approximately 235,000 homes each year.

If planning approval is secured, the solar farm is expected to begin operating by 2031. The proposed site covers 4,353 acres, an area comparable to 2,468 full-size football pitches. Some of the solar arrays would use tracker technology, with units as large as double-decker buses moving to follow the sun throughout the day.

Paul Wareing, 68, believes the development would consume parts of the Vale of Evesham, an area celebrated for its fertile soil and long-standing fruit and asparagus production. He warned that it would damage what he called quintessential English countryside.

Mr Wareing, a semi-retired former government project manager, said: “People are only just waking up to the scale of this thing. It will destroy our green and pleasant land.”

Mr Wareing, who lives in Salford Priors with his wife Joanna, 69, said the planned location for battery units designed to store surplus electricity was also the scene of a wildfire last month that came close to threatening the village. Salford Priors was previously named Warwickshire’s village of the year.

‘If there had been batteries in-situ then there would have been hell to pay’, he added.

‘This scheme will turn a beautiful area into a giant industrial estate.

‘The irony is that I live in a conservation area and if I wanted to put solar panels on my roof I wouldn’t be allowed. Instead schemes like this are allowed to blight the countryside around us.’

Much of the land for the scheme will be provided by the nearby 6,000-acre Ragley Estate – which was at the centre of a bitter High Court family trust dispute last year.

David Smith, a retired electricity board worker from Abbots Morton, accused Henry Seymour, the 9th Marquess of Hertford who inherited the £85m ancestral estate in 1991, of ‘destroying this corner of Warwickshire’.

Mr Smith, 68, said: ‘How will he be remembered after this?

‘Landowners like the marquess are custodians, it is only his house for his duration.

‘A sizable percentage of this scheme will be on the estate’s land, but not one square inch of it will be visible from Ragley Hall.’

Mr Smith said the new solar scheme will result in panels positioned just yards from his home. The land, currently used to grow oil seed rape, would flood because underground drainage pipes would be ‘smashed’ by the framework for the solar panels, he feared.

But the landowner, who said he had agreed to lease 200 acres for at least 30 years as part of the development, said farming was becoming ‘unviable.’

‘If the scheme gets the go-ahead there will be sheep on here – it’s going to be built so they can graze’, the farmer, who declined to be named, said.

‘I’m losing money growing crops’.

NSIPs require a specific type of planning permission called ‘development consent’, with the final decision resting with the Secretary of State.

A public consultation into the project opens at the end of this month.

Land earmarked for the scheme spans at least 11 parishes, with other villages and hamlets affected including Broome, Cleeve Prior and the hamlet of Weethley, where a stunning vista behind St James’s church is set to be decimated by solar panels.

Dr Jane Cornwall, a psychologist and church warden at St James’s, runs a mindfulness group from the building for people with anxiety and depression.

She said: ‘People come here to enjoy the unadulterated view, to walk and enjoy the peaceful tranquillity. I’m very concerned and the company behind this scheme have done nothing to allay people’s fears.’

But a villager in Dunnington who was in favour of the scheme, and green energy in general, said: ‘The panels near here won’t be visible from the houses and will mainly be on estate land which isn’t used for much at the moment.’

Arrow Valley Solar is one of slew of super-sized solar parks to enter the planning system over the last year. Earlier this year, the government approved what was up until then the UK’s largest power-producing solar farm, following a planning inquiry.

The 800MW Springwell Solar Farm, between Lincoln and Sleaford, will cover 3,163 acres and power 180,000 homes.

A decision on a proposed 4,361-acre ‘Great North Road’ solar park, which could generate enough electricity for 400,000 homes, beside the A1 in Nottinghamshire is expected next month.

Jamie Gleeson, Project Development Manager for Arrow Valley Solar, said the development would be ‘sympathetic to the local area’s environment, character and history’.

He added: ‘The project is being developed to help meet growing demand for secure, home-grown renewable energy and will be shaped by a comprehensive programme of environmental and technical assessments, alongside feedback from local communities and stakeholders.’

‘We recognise that people have questions about what the proposals could mean for the local area and would encourage anyone interested in the project to take part in our forthcoming public consultation’. 

Ragley Estate said it understood some residents had concerns over the scheme, ‘for which Ragley is one of a number of landowners that are involved.’

It said that, ahead of the consultation, the ‘Arrow Valley Solar project team are best placed to respond to any queries or concerns’. 

Last November, the Earl of Yarmouth, William Seymour, was saddled with a £1.3m legal bill after losing a battle over the running of the estate.

The earl, then 31, had been involved in a spat with his parents, the Marquess and Marchioness of Hertford, since 2018 when they objected to his wedding to former Goldman Sachs banker Kelsey Wells – now Lady Yarmouth.

The High Court was told that as the oldest son, the earl expected to be handed Ragley Hall, the 340-year-old family seat, when he turned 30.

But he was disinherited by his father after they fell out around the time of the earl’s marriage.