FEATURE SUSTAINABLE BUILDING
“Pierre knew about hempcrete from Switzerland and France, and encouraged me to look into it,” Hobbs explains. “I did a deep dive, and I’ve never found a better material for low- rise, affordable housing. That’s why we’re still building with hemp today.” Wellspring’s journey hasn’t been straightforward. “We built our first hemp house in Maesteg, completed in 2022, and sold it on the private market,” Hobbs explains. “From there, we moved to a site in Neath to build eight private houses. “But interest rates went up, the market turned, and by early 2024, we realised we couldn’t sell them at the price point needed.” For a small company, the pressure was immense. “We’re a purpose-driven, privately funded business, so we carried a lot of risk,” he says. Then his luck changed with a chance encounter. “I met someone in a pub who connected me with one of the Head’s of Development of Pobl Group [a housing association in Wales]. He visited our site, liked what we were doing, and eventually – after various rounds of negotiation with the local council and the Welsh Government – we agreed on a deal. “As of March 2025, Pobl took on the site. We’re now delivering 13 hemp homes there, including the UK’s first hemp flats.” It’s a significant moment for a small builder with a big idea, and proof that sustainability can succeed with the right combination of belief, persistence and partnership. Homegrown hemp Hobbs and his team build with hemp, of course, and they grow it. “Through a project in Pembrokeshire, we’d been asked to do structural work on a heritage farm. While we were there, we suggested building a hempcrete extension, which became the first one I ever built myself.” That project led to another collaboration – and a new recruit. “The farm was also home to Jacob, who happened to be building his own straw house. We became friends, and eventually he joined Wellspring as our farming lead and later a director. That’s how we began growing hemp ourselves.”
me. I sent him samples, he lab-tested them, and confirmed my mixes were strong enough to support 80 per cent of the roof.” It was, in many ways, a community effort. “I had free rein to design, and we had a community of rammed earth builders online willing to share knowledge. Everyone just said, ‘Go old-school, tamp by hand – you’ll get a better finish.’ They were right.” Sustainability doesn’t always come from new technology or corporate funding. Sometimes it grows from old skills that are reinvigorated by an engaged community of artisans. “I hope it becomes more popular,” McHale says. “It’s niche now, but this build shows what’s possible. It’s as old as building itself, older than bricks and mortar, but with modern techniques you can push it further. I hope it inspires people to see traditional skills as part of the future of sustainable building.” Built from a different seed While McHale was tamping clay in Herefordshire, 100 miles west another builder was taking a different path through the fields. For Hadleigh Hobbs, Managing Director of Wellspring Homes in Wales, sustainability began with a question that every small builder can relate to: Could we build differently?
“My background is as a structural engineer,” Hobbs explains. “I was working on residential projects for some of the top five housebuilders, but I began to question the way we were building and the lack of innovation. I met
Growing hemp isn’t simple. “Hemp is regulated by the Home Office under drugs licensing,” Hobbs explains. “When we first applied, it was field-specific – you had to name exactly which field you were growing in. We had one of our preferred fields rejected because there was a campsite half a mile away, even though the crop wasn’t visible from there. “The compromise was to plant a ‘boundary crop’ around the hemp to screen it. We chose sunflowers, which grew to about a metre, while the hemp grew to three-and-a-half metres. Seems a bit pointless. Now it’s easier. Licenses can cover whole farms rather than individual fields, which is more practical.”
Harvested hemp in a field
a fellow engineer, Pierre Gregorian, through the Institute
of Structural Engineers. We started talking about how construction could be done differently.” That conversation led to Wellspring Homes – an independent developer and builder working with hempcrete, a mixture of hemp shiv, lime and water that creates breathable, carbon-storing walls.
Master Builder 36
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