THE Phipps family worked hard to maintain a sustainable lifestyle and now 6,000 more families will be doing the same but in a very different way.

Albert and Elsie Phipps ran Home Farm until it was taken over four years ago when Bicester got government backing in 2009 for the UK’s first eco-town.

It will see 6,000 homes built over the next 20 to 30 years and so far has had 393 homes built, plus the site's first school.

Sheila Wallington, one of the Phipps' daughters, said it was strange to see the new houses as she remembers growing up on the farm, with early morning milking duties or mushroom picking in the garden.

The 65-year-old said: "We were obviously born and bred on the farm and when we were little the farm was quite a long way from Bicester – it seemed miles.

"It is very different now.

"I am the only one of the family that walks over there, from Bucknell where I live now, and I must admit when I reach that field I do get quite tearful.

"I know you can’t look back, you have to go forwards but I do think it is sad."

The eco-town will encourage residents to live a more sustainable life with a number of designs such as generous cycle provisions to encourage more people to take to their bikes.

The new development has also dedicated 40 per cent green open spaces to the site including allotments, community orchards and communal herb boxes to bring Bicester into a modern world of green living.

It is a way of life the Phipps family – Albert and Elsie and their four children Ms Wallington, Margaret Dingle, Judie Firmin and Geoffrey Phipps – were also exponents of.

Ms Wallington said: "The field they have actually built on first is the field I did my horse dressage in.

"It was a dairy farm so we used to have to get up early and get the cows down in the mornings and clamp them in the parlours for milking.

"We always used to help at the harvest as well, and mum would bring us out a picnic.

"We used to collect conkers, pick blackberries and there was a brilliant field for mushrooming.

"There are an awful lot of memories there."

Home Farm was run by Mr Phipps until he died 23 years ago.

It was then taken over by Mrs Phipps, who ran it with Geoffrey – Mrs Wallington's brother – along with his two sons.

He took over the farm full-time in 2009, before agreeing the sale of the land four years ago.

Ms Wallington confessed she often goes over to the fields where she grew up to make the most of the countryside before it is eaten up by the development.

She added: "We have all got to move on and grow up but I do worry that the ideal eco-town is not going to be a reality.

"I do hope I am proved wrong and they provide sustainable homes."