New homes in Wantage and Grove: the estates explained

Thinking about a new build, or just wondering what is going up behind the hedge? This page explains the new homes in Wantage and the villages just north of it, site by site: where each estate sits, who is building it, how many houses are planned and what else is meant to come with them. It is written for people house hunting here, and for residents who want a clear picture of the next few years.

The short version

• Two very large sites lead the way: Grove Airfield in Grove and Kingsgrove on the north-east edge of town.
• Monks Farm in north Grove was being built at the last check (June 2026). A further site north-west of Grove was in planning (September 2026).
• Stockham Farm in west Wantage and the housing at East Hanney are finished.
• The big sites are meant to provide schools, parks, a shop or two and most of the Grove Northern Link Road.
• Statuses move. Every development page shows the month it was last checked.

Where the new homes in Wantage sit on the map

Four live sites account for most of the growth, and they sit around the north and east of the two towns. Grove Airfield and the land north-west of Grove are in Grove, roughly 2 km north of Wantage Market Place in a straight line. Kingsgrove is closer in, on the north-east edge of Wantage, about 1.9 km out. Monks Farm fills the top of Grove, next to the line of the planned link road.

The table below compares what each scheme is meant to deliver beyond the houses themselves. Home numbers are approximate and come from the site’s development pages.

Builder, home count and the current stage of each scheme sit on the cards below, largest first.

• Grove Airfield (Wellington Gate), GroveBeing built (Sep 2026)2,500 homes · Persimmon Homes
• Kingsgrove (Crab Hill), north-east WantageBeing built (Sep 2026)1,534 homes · St Modwen
• Monks Farm, north GroveBeing built (Jun 2026)885 homes · David Wilson Homes
• North West of GroveIn planning (Sep 2026)624 homes · Persimmon Homes
• Stockham Farm housing, west WantageComplete (Apr 2026)380 homes
• Land east of Grove (300 homes, refused)Refused (Mar 2023)300 homes · David Wilson Homes

Good to know: each status carries the month it was last checked, so you can see how fresh it is before you rely on it.

Kingsgrove, north-east Wantage

Kingsgrove is the closest of the big estates to the centre of town. St Modwen is behind it, with roughly 1,534 homes planned, and it was being built at the last check (September 2026). The site is also known as Crab Hill, which is the name that still appears on older planning papers.

What makes it different from the Grove sites is how much is packed into one place: a primary school, a neighbourhood centre with a convenience store, a community hub, a central park and a 72-bed care home. The estate has grown into its own named area on the north-east side, reached from the eastern edge of town rather than through the high street.

Wellington Gate on the old Grove Airfield

Grove Airfield is the largest scheme in the area by a wide margin, at about 2,500 homes, and Persimmon Homes is building it as Wellington Gate. It was being built at the last check (September 2026), and a site that size takes many years to finish, so expect building work next to finished streets for a long time.

The outline includes a secondary school, primary schools, a local centre, a community hub and a community park. For buyers, the practical question is which phase a plot sits in and what is planned on the land beside it. For people already in Grove, the bigger question is traffic and how the new roads connect the estate to the rest of the village.

Monks Farm, north-west Grove and the sites already built

Monks Farm covers about 885 homes in north Grove, by David Wilson Homes, and was being built at the last check (June 2026). It carries a lot of infrastructure: a section of the Grove Northern Link Road, employment land, land and a sports pitch for a primary school expansion, a bridge over the Letcombe Brook, and open space.

North West of Grove is the one still to be decided, at about 624 homes by Persimmon Homes, in planning at the last check (September 2026). It would complete the link road, add housing with care for older people, put signals at Brook Lane railway bridge, and provide allotments and open space along with contributions towards schools, GP capacity and buses.

Two estates are done. Stockham Farm in west Wantage added about 380 homes and was complete at the last check (April 2026), and the housing at East Hanney, about 5.5 km north, added roughly 216 and was complete at the same check. Not every scheme goes ahead, either: a 300-home plan east of Grove was refused in March 2023.

Roads, rail and getting across town

Access is the part of growth most people feel first. King Alfred Way, the eastern link road, was complete at the last check (December 2024) and takes traffic around the east side of Wantage. The Grove Northern Link Road was approved at the last check (September 2026); Monks Farm builds one section and the north-west scheme would finish the rest.

There is no station in either town. A station for Wantage and Grove remained at the proposed stage at the last check (November 2025), so treat it as a long-term hope rather than part of a moving plan. Road, rail and infrastructure schemes are listed below with where each one has got to.

• Grove Northern Link RoadApproved (Sep 2026)Developers of Monks Farm
• King Alfred Way (Wantage Eastern Link Road)Complete (Dec 2024)Oxfordshire County Council

• Wantage and Grove railway station (proposed)Proposed (Nov 2025)Oxfordshire County Council

Schools for the new estates

School places are written into the big sites. Kingsgrove has its own primary, Wantage Primary Academy, which was graded outstanding by Ofsted in May 2023. Grove Airfield is set to bring a secondary school and more than one primary, which matters because the existing secondaries in Wantage and Grove already draw from a wide area.

Monks Farm provides land and a sports pitch for the expansion of the Church of England primary in Grove, which was graded requires improvement in September 2024. Grades and admission patterns change, so check the date on anything you read. The full list of primaries, secondaries and nurseries, each with its latest inspection outcome and the month it was recorded, sits on the schools pages.

Tip: walk the school run and the route to the nearest shop at the time of day you would really do them, not on a quiet Sunday.

Shops, open space and daily life on a new estate

Day-to-day life on the newer streets depends on how far the local facilities have caught up with the houses. Kingsgrove is planned around a neighbourhood centre with a convenience store and a community hub, and Grove Airfield around a local centre, a community hub and a community park. Early phases often finish well before those arrive, so ask what is built and what is still a line on a plan.

For bigger shopping, the market town centre is the draw, and changes to Wantage Market Place were in planning at the last check (September 2026). Green space is one clear upside of this edge-of-town living: the open land, allotments and parks on the new sites, plus footpaths out to the downs. Short walks starting near Wantage are below, shortest first.

• Wantage town and the Letcombe Brook 1.8 miles · Easy
• The Wantage Arm and the Wilts & Berks Canal 4.2 miles · Easy

What to check before you buy on a new estate

Prices on new build plots vary by phase, house type and what the builder includes, so nobody can give you one figure for the new homes in Wantage and Grove. The running costs are just as worth your time: council tax band, heating type, and any estate charge for roads and open space that are not adopted by the council.

Worth asking before you commit:

• Which phase your plot is in, and what is planned on the land either side of it.
• Who will maintain the roads, verges and play areas, and what any estate charge covers.
• Parking spaces, visitor parking and where the bins go on collection day.
• Broadband, mobile signal and whether there is an electric vehicle charge point.
• The builder’s warranty, and who you report snags to once you have moved in.
• Which school catchment the address falls in, and whether the on-site school is open yet.

A straightforward way to research a site in order:

1. Open the development page for the estate and note the status, the home count and the month of the last check.
2. Look up the planning application and its conditions; applications here are decided by Vale of White Horse District Council.
3. Check the roads scheme tied to the site, because an estate’s traffic often depends on a link road being finished.
4. Ask the sales office what is still to be built within sight of the plot, and roughly when.
5. Check whether the address falls in the town or in a parish such as Grove, since part of your council tax goes to that council.

Where to look next

Housing numbers across the Vale of White Horse are shaped by the joint local plan, which was in planning at the last check (September 2026), so more sites may follow the ones described here. If you want to keep an eye on a single estate, the development pages are the place to start: each one holds the current stage, the builder and the facilities promised, with the date it was last checked.

Details do change between checks. If something here no longer matches what you can see on the ground, you can report it on the relevant page, and corrections are welcome on any page on wantage.com.