The former school where war poet Wilfred Owen had his first job could be converted into a house if plans are approved.

The owners of Wyle Cop Antiques, in an alley off Wyle Cop, near the Lion Hotel in Shrewsbury, have applied for permission to transform the shop into a residential property. The furniture shop is the only surviving building from the Victorian school premises, built in the 1880s.

The school stood on the area now occupied by the Prince Rupert Hotel’s car park.

It is believed the building originally housed the school’s cookery department.

Wyle Cop Antiques owner John Clifford is due to retire this year but has been un- able to sell his business. He has decided to convert the building into a house for long term rent to fund his retirement.

Plans say the building has had many uses over the years, such as a library, recruiting centre in the war, damp proofing shop and for pet food storage.

Wilfred Owen was a pupil-teacher at Shrewsbury Borough Technical School from 1907 to 1911.

Historian Dr Nigel Tinsley, said: “According to Hibberd, his biographer, he was paid a small salary from 1909 onwards.

“The work under headmaster SJ Lightbown appears to have been quite arduous and was something Wilfred never forgot, it is mentioned in his letters to his mother during the latter part of his short life.

“In a 1911 letter he refers to ‘the Cop of amiable memory’, on December 31, 1917 he cites this period as one of the ‘bouts’ of hard labour which he had endured.”

Wilfred Owen was born at Plas Wilmot in Oswestry in 1893 and died in action in France on November 4, 1918, just a week before the armistice.

He is now recognised internationally as the leading poet of the Great War and one of the greatest English poets of all time.

The plans are currently under consideration by Shropshire Council.