Work has started on a new housing development on the Swanland Nurseries site near Hull, which was recently sold by owners John and Shirley Waters to Linden Homes.

The house builders are promoting Swanland Gardens as one of their prime sites in the region. It will contain 31 properties and the Waters family will get two new houses as part of the deal.

The sale, for an undisclosed sum, was handled by city agent Garness Jones.

Managing director Dave Garness said the four-acre site attracted considerable interest when owners John and Shirley Waters decided to sell their 65-year-old family firm.

Mr Garness said: "The level of interest was such there was no need to market the site.

"It was clear from the start this was an excellent site for residential development, and as a result John and Shirley received direct approaches from a number of house builders.

"They brought us in to advise upon how best to handle these enquiries, conduct negotiations and arrive at an agreement."

The process took 13 months from an initial inquiry by Linden Homes to completion of the sale.

Commenting on the the family's decision to sell, John Waters said: "Swanland Nurseries was founded by my parents 65 years ago and I'd been in it all my life. It was a sound business, very profitable and popular and I know a lot of people were very disappointed when we decided to close.

"But I am at retirement age and so is Shirley and our children didn't want to run the business because they have their own careers.

"Once the land was allocated for development we approached various house builders and others came to us.

"The interest from house builders and the need for more housing in Swanland presented an opportunity to retire and secure a retirement house in a place we love."

In the past Swanland Nurseries have been recognised in The Greatest Awards organised by Garden Trade News, winning a Silver in the Christmas Awards 2011 among many other accolades.