Owner's high hopes for Bishop Percy's House in Bridgnorth
The owner of one of Shropshire's oldest buildings has spoken of her hope that it can be opened for the benefit of the public.
Maria Allen fell in love with Bishop Percy's House in Bridgnorth when it went up for sale three years ago – and now intends to restore it and ensure it can be enjoyed by all.
Meetings will be held with contractors and the architects to start work on the building as soon as possible.
The bottom floor of the original house will become a tea room and the top two floors will become two holiday let apartments.
A new-build which will be put in place of the old gym from the house's boys' club days will be two houses for residential use.
Progress on the house has been a labour of love, with planning permissions first granted in 2013.
But Mrs Allen, from Lawnswood in Stourbridge, has been working closely with English Heritage and fire officers to ensure the building is restored to a high quality, with safety meeting modern standards, while also maintaining many of the building's original features.
Much of the delay over the past 12 months has been while plans are put in place to remove an old fire escape and replace it with a fire suppression system.
Mrs Allen said: "The plan is to open it up so people can come and have a cup of tea or stay the night; I want to bring it alive again.
"I didn't know the building until it went on the market. I had been to Bridgnorth before but we tend to go into High Town, but I thought it was fabulous and I wanted to do something with it."
Mrs Allen will make the bottom floor into a tea room, converting the former kitchen from the boys' club and connecting it to an old toilet from its former use.
Mrs Allen hopes to decorate the building with information about its history.
She said: "I've got hundreds of old pictures, going back to when it used to have three doors at the front.
"I'd also like to take some pictures of what it looks like now and show the before and after."
"I had an open day and that went really well, we had hundreds of people come and a lot were very nostalgic about the time when it was a boys club.
"We're trying to get as much information about the building as possible."
