It was recently billed by Country Life magazine as "almost untouched by the passing of time", but the dreamy Cotswold pile of Ablington Manor will see extensive changes if planners agree to an ambitious package of proposed changes.

After Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries, Ablington House, near Bibury, flourished as the country seat of wealthy businessman John Coxwell, who built his fortune on Cotswold wool. Most of the extensive residence was built around 1590, although succeeding centuries have seen incremental changes to the Grade I-listed home.

Present owner Robert Cooper, who bought the property in 1975, has now asked planners to agree on a raft of changes. Since Robert and his wife Prudence took on Ablington, they have spent many years as hands-on gardeners and carried out a transformation of the estate's grounds – so much so that the results were celebrated in "Secret Gardens Of The Cotswolds", a work published in 2015 to showcase the region's best green spaces.

As a private residence, any glimpse of life at Ablington has been restricted to a once-yearly opening of the property's gardens for charity, but fresh plans submitted to Cotswold District Council reveal more about the exclusive residence and the owners' plans to modernise their home.

Headline aspects of the proposals, which are being handled by Foster and Partners, the team led by famed architect Norman Foster, include: 

● Demolition of existing extensions for a new orangery

● Extending the existing lower ground floor and re-rendering external elevations

● Removal of modern extensions at Orchard Cottage 

● The creation of a new access and alterations to the boundary wall.

Elsewhere, demolition and alteration of outbuildings are also requested, with a new tennis court and internal and external alterations to the stables and gazebo. Approval would also see the creation of a basement parking area, a studio and a swimming pool. 

A housekeeping ménage would also go, along with workshops and machinery stores, and a new bat house and sub-station would be created, while ground source heat pumps are planned as well as new entrance gates at the property's northern entrance.

Foster and Partners told planners in a Design Statement that the work was "an architectural vision".

They added: "The renovation and development of Ablington Manor and the wider estate offers an exceptional opportunity to preserve and enhance important historic buildings set within a landscape. Ablington estate is the architectural accumulation of centuries of history, with features reflecting the custodianship of previous owners."

In 1918, the estate was split, and its parts sold, the report said.

"This subdivision resulted in a loss of central focus, with ad hoc additions distracting from the historic whole. As of 2021, the newly combined ownership of the Manor House and Orchard Cottage sites has enabled the reunification of the wider site, breathing new life into the estate and safeguarding its future use."

Ongoing domestic use was key to the renovation of the historic estate as "a continuation of its centuries of use as a family home. 

"The historic appeal of the site and the need to sensitively preserve it was a significant attraction to the current owners, and aligned closely with an architectural philosophy of forming considerate connections between past, present, and future."