If your completion date at Fiddington Fields, or somewhere else on the Ashchurch and Northway side of Tewkesbury, has just moved, you are not on your own with it. This corner of Tewkesbury is growing fast, and a corridor growing this fast throws up exactly this kind of gap, again and again. Our branch sits inside Ashchurch itself, and we see this often enough to know there is a straightforward way through it that does not mean locking yourself into a unit sized for the worst case, or feeling like you should somehow have seen it coming.
In a hurry? Pick your situation:
- Just found out today, date definitely moved: skip to the bridging pattern below.
- No letter yet, but you can feel it coming: same section covers a reserve plan.
- Already vacated, nowhere for your things right now: jump to the booking step near the end.
Validate the corridor, not just the delay
Ashchurch and Northway sit inside a real, live, multi-scheme growth corridor, not one lone development running late. Persimmon’s Fiddington Fields is actively selling homes now, on Diamond Road in Ashchurch, and two larger schemes, North Ashchurch Garden Communities and the Carrant Garden Neighbourhood at Northway, are working their way through the planning system behind it. More construction, more inspection queues and more subcontractor scheduling happening at once means more completion dates slipping. That is the pattern to understand before we get to yours.
The three schemes sit at different stages, and it is worth being precise about which. Fiddington Fields is a working, selling development, not a plan on paper. North Ashchurch Garden Communities is the larger of the two, a strategic-scale allocation of roughly 2,800 homes within a wider masterplan that could eventually reach around 4,350 homes; the consortium behind it, which includes Bellway Homes, Bromford Developments, Mansfield Partners and Homes England, submitted its outline planning application to Tewkesbury Borough Council in mid-2025, and it remains under consideration rather than decided. Carrant Garden Neighbourhood, a Newland Homes proposal for up to 500 homes north of Northway, has been through public consultation but has no application submitted yet. If your date has slipped, it is almost certainly tied to a scheme actually being built, like Fiddington Fields, rather than one still working through planning. Either way, this corridor moves at growth-area speed, and that speed means dates shift.
Why new-build completion dates move
Most slipped dates come down to ordinary building-site mechanics, not anything gone wrong with your purchase: outstanding snagging work that must be finished before the property can legally change hands, an inspection that could not be booked or passed first time, or a supply-chain delay on a component the build cannot proceed without. None of these are unusual on an actively selling site, Fiddington Fields included, and none mean your build has a particular problem.
What is genuinely hard to predict is how long any one delay will run. A missed inspection might cost a fortnight; a supply-chain hold-up on the wrong item can run much longer. That unpredictability is why planning by band, rather than guessing a single number, beats either assuming the worst or hoping for a few days.
The growth-edge bridging pattern
Rather than guess how long your gap will run, plan against three rough bands and let the actual length decide which one applies as you go. This is an illustrative pattern based on what we typically see, not a cited industry statistic, so treat the weeks as a guide, not a promise.
- Short gap: roughly 2 to 3 weeks
- Medium gap: roughly 4 to 6 weeks
- Longer gap: roughly 7 to 8+ weeks
| Band | Typical trigger | What to do | Storage approach |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short gap, roughly 2-3 weeks | A minor snagging list, one missed inspection, or a short subcontractor delay on a largely finished site | Pack once, move everything in one trip, keep a “first week” box of essentials out | An open-ended booking, so you are not paying for a fixed term longer than the gap turns out to be |
| Medium gap, roughly 4-6 weeks | A fuller remediation list, a supply-chain hold, or the developer moving the date once already | Same single-move approach, but start lining up temporary accommodation alongside storage rather than assuming you will “make do” | Same open-ended booking, no need to switch to anything longer |
| Longer gap, roughly 7-8+ weeks | The date has moved more than once, or you bought early into a scheme still working through the planning system, such as North Ashchurch or Carrant Garden Neighbourhood eventually coming forward | Also review your contract’s “long stop” date and any delay-compensation clause alongside the storage plan | Same open-ended booking; only your patience needs to stretch, not the product |
Often you will not know your band at first, and that is fine. An open-ended, flexible-length booking means you do not have to decide in advance: you book, you move in, and the length sorts itself out as your date firms up, rather than committing to twelve months on day one just to be safe. If your date moves more than once, you are most likely in Band 3. Treat it as a two-track problem: keep the storage side simple as above, and separately check the contractual side, covered below. That is usually enough to turn “we don’t know what’s happening” into “we’ve got it covered, whichever way it goes” by the time anyone asks.
Why the Ashchurch branch itself is part of the plan
Wigwam Self Storage Tewkesbury is based at Ashchurch Business Centre, Alexandra Way, Tewkesbury, GL20 8NB, physically on the same growth corridor as Fiddington Fields and the wider Ashchurch and Northway developments, not a depot bussed in from elsewhere in the county.
We are not the only local option, and we would rather say that plainly. Other storage providers operate on or near Northway Lane too, and some advertise round-the-clock access, which we do not offer; our hours are 6am to 10pm, seven days a week, not 24 hours. What we can genuinely offer, and have not seen matched locally, is the banded planning approach above, named knowledge of the developments driving this corridor, and straightforward terms: a deposit, a 14-day notice to leave, and unused days refunded.
Ashchurch has a longer history than the new housing suggests, too: MOD Ashchurch, the Army’s vehicle storage and maintenance site, has been part of the area for decades. That is local character, not anything connected to storage demand, but it is part of what makes Ashchurch its own place, not a generic Tewkesbury postcode.
The other half of the plan: your contract, not just your boxes
Alongside sorting out storage, check your purchase contract for a “long stop” completion date and any delay-compensation clause. This is general information, not something we can advise you on ourselves.
A long stop date is the latest point by which a developer must complete under most new-build contracts, separate from the estimated completion date you were originally given. The HomeOwners Alliance has a clear general guide to how this works. Whether you can claim compensation depends entirely on your specific contract; there is no simple yes or no. Check your contract’s own terms and, if unsure, raise it through the developer’s complaints process or your solicitor or conveyancer.
This is general information, not legal advice, and applies to England and Wales, where Tewkesbury sits; Scotland and Northern Ireland conveyancing differs, so speak to a solicitor qualified in that jurisdiction. Our team can help with sizing, availability, access and booking, but we cannot discuss your contract or your developer’s obligations. That is a solicitor’s job, and a good one is worth the call.
Booking it without overcommitting
Once you have a rough sense of which band you are in, the booking itself is straightforward: an open-ended agreement with a deposit, a 14-day notice period when you are ready to leave, and unused days refunded rather than kept. You can book through quote.wigwamstorage.co.uk whenever you’re ready; there is no need to have your exact move-in date pinned down first.
Most people moving out of a two or three-bedroom home for a completion gap need a mid-sized unit, enough for furniture, boxed belongings and a few larger items, without paying for space sized for a permanent move. If unsure, our team can talk you through sizing based on what you are actually storing.
Our sites are unmanned, which keeps costs down, but it means a courier or any third party can only get in if someone from your own side is there in person to let them in. Worth building that into your plan if you are expecting a delivery during the gap.
No pressure to decide today if you are still waiting on news from your developer. Our guide to storage when moving house covers the same open-ended approach more generally, if you want the wider picture.
If you’re comparing branches, or dealing with a resale chain instead
Not everyone reading this is in exactly this situation. If you are weighing up which Wigwam branch suits you best, Tewkesbury, Cheltenham or somewhere else nearby, that is a different question, and we cover it in a dedicated branch-selection guide once it is published. If you are actually dealing with a broken buying chain on a resale property, rather than a developer’s new-build completion date, read our separate guide, Self-Storage When the Completion Date Slips: What to Do When the Chain Breaks, which covers pre-exchange and post-exchange chain problems specifically.
The Ashchurch and Northway pattern, in short
This corridor is growing quickly, and for some buyers a slipped completion date is simply what that growth looks like from the inside, not a personal misfortune. The way through it is the same whether you have just had the news, suspect it is coming, or are already sitting in the gap: an open-ended, no-long-lock-in storage plan, from a branch already on this corridor at Ashchurch Business Centre, not parachuted in from somewhere else.
When you are ready, book through quote.wigwamstorage.co.uk. There is a deposit, a 14-day notice period when you leave, and any unused days are refunded, so you never pay for more than you use.
Frequently Asked Questions
There is no reliable published UK average for this, and we would rather say that plainly than invent a number. The more useful approach is to plan by band, as set out above, and let the actual length decide which one applies to you.
Yes. Wigwam Self Storage Tewkesbury is based at Ashchurch Business Centre, Alexandra Way, Tewkesbury, GL20 8NB, physically inside Ashchurch rather than elsewhere in the town.
Most completion-gap moves from a two or three-bedroom home need a mid-sized unit for furniture and boxed belongings. Our team can talk you through sizing for your specific move.
Our sites are unmanned. A courier or third party can only access a unit if someone from your own side is physically present to let them in.
