EAST Lancashire property tycoon Gerald Hitman wants to build a country mansion costing more than £2 million.

He has applied for planning permission to construct the isolated property -- to be called New Lawsonsteads -- near Wiswell, in the Ribble Valley.

Mr Hitman runs Brockhall Village Developments, and was responsible for the exclusive housing development which sprang up on the site of the old Brockhall Hospital in the 90s.

New Lawsonsteads will be of outstanding contemporary architecture and landscape design, said Mr Hitman.

"The house and its immediate surroundings will be invisible from any existing dwellings in Wiswell."

Mr Hitman asked the Royal Institute of British Architects to hold an open competition to design the mansion, after he had snapped up Lawsonsteads Farm at auction in May last year. There were 58 entries. The winning architects were Frank Lyons and Peter Skerrett, both of whom originate from Lancashire. They have produced plans for a large house springing out of an existing rock outcrop on an elevated part of the Lawsonsteads site -- and invisible from the village.

It has been designed around the likely requirements of a wealthy family working at least partly from home.

The application for New Lawsonsteads to Ribble Valley Borough Council will be supported by leading architects. Mr Hitman has invited everyone who lives in Wiswell to examine the scheme.