A PLAN to create a 960-panel solar farm close to 'The Stonehenge of the North' and an abandoned medieval village has been unveiled.

Richard Alton, the owner of Rushwood Hall, once the seat of the Nussey baronetcy and home to Teesside steelworks artist Viva Talbot, has submitted an application to Hambleton District Council to launch a small-scale renewable energy scheme west of the property in East Tanfield, near Ripon.

The application is among a growing number of solar farm plans due to be decided by Hambleton District Council, with sites at Ainderby Steeple, near Northallerton, and Husthwaite, near Thirsk in the pipeline.

Last month, the authority deferred considering a scheme at White House Farm in Great Smeaton, near Northallerton and approved others at Raskelf and Sandhutton, near Thirsk.

The East Tanfield proposal aims to provide energy for the crop services business based at the hall, which was an evacuation centre for young children during the Second World War, and a number of cottages.

Development consultants Arrowsmith Associates said the high energy demands of the site had led Mr Alton to find a means of accessing a secure and economical energy source, insulated to some extent from variations in the market, while contributing to reductions in CO2 levels.

The planned solar farm site is on farmland, separated by a belt of trees from the southernmost of the Thornborough Henges, a Neolithic site described by English Heritage as the most important ancient site between Stonehenge and the Orkney Islands.

It is also near the site of East Tanfield, one of the best documented medieval deserted villages in Yorkshire, which was a prosperous community in the 14th Century.

An Arrowsmith Associates spokesman said the site was isolated from public views and would not impact on any nearby residential properties.

He said the solar farm would be completely screened by trees and its impact on the landscape would be negligible.

He said: "What public views would exist would be seen in the context of an ever increasing acceptance that such sites are part of the modern rural landscape, as supported by government policy.

"Although close to the Thornborough Henges and East Tanfield abandoned medieval village, both of which are scheduled monuments, the application site is not close enough to either of these to have any impact on them.

A Tanfield Parish Council spokeswoman said it was due to consider the application at its meeting on October 21.