DEVELOPERS are planning to create a new £20m village in the Hampshire countryside.

Set around a village green, with grand houses and nestling in the heart of Test Valley, the project promises an idyllic country lifestyle - at a price.

Called Tilebourne, the new village or hamlet will consist of 30 homes, many of which will be priced at over £1m.

The two to five bedroom homes will use a variety of traditional designs so it looks like a community built over 50 years instead of the two developers Banner Homes expects.

The 13-acre site, formerly the Redland tile works is located between Michelmersh and Timsbury near to the A3057 and five minutes drive from Romsey.

Tilebourne already has planning permission and bosses expect work to start soon, with the first villagers due to move in next year.

The project echoes Poundbury, Prince Charles model village project in Dorset which aimed to show how traditional architecture and modern town planning could make a thriving community.

It's the brainchild of Winchester-based Pro Vision Planning and Design, with the site bought by new firm Bargate Homes who have now handed it over to Banner Homes to build and market the project.

Bargate managing director Gerard Price said: "We are calling it a hamlet which is a lovely way of describing it.

"It is trying to recreate the idea of a village with a number of grand houses and smaller cottages with a mix of architecture.

"There will be some very big expensive houses built and there will be some that look like converted barns and it will all be designed to blend in with its surroundings, not look like its plonked in the middle of a field. The bigger houses will go for over a million pounds each but there will be a collection of sizes.

"There will be a cross section of people living there. Local people who are crying out for new housing, people moving into the area who aspire to live in the Test Valley. You'll have families and retired people moving in.

"It's different from Hedge End or Whiteley where they've tried to build big communities. Poundbury is a good example. It's not the same sort of architecture but it is the same sort of ethos."

Mr Price is best known as the founder of major regional developer Linden Homes, which he sold in 2004 for an undisclosed sum. Managing director of Banner Homes Alan Smith said: "Sites like this in such exceptional locations come along once in a lifetime. We will ensure that the finished development remains exceptional."