Pictures: changing fortunes of The Chase Hotel in Herefordshire

The Chase Hotel, which was a Georgian house before becoming a hotel in 1927, and its grounds, are on the market with agents Knight Frank for offers in excess of £5,000,000.

The owners of the town centre hotel, Camanoe Estates Limited, closed the hotel on in 2019 as, they said at the time, the business no longer made a profit.

The Chase Hotel, Ross-on-Wye, 2022. Picture: Zoopla/Knight Frank

In its place they hoped to get planning permission for around 100 to 120 apartments and also five houses on the grounds.

No application has been lodged with Herefordshire Council for the town centre site since it shut in 2019, but there have been conversations with planners, with agents saying the building has conversion potential and the 11.81 acre grounds have further potential for new build development, subject to planning consent.

The Chase Hotel, Ross-on-Wye

But it is not the first time the Chase Hotel site has been mooted for redevelopment.

Described in the Hereford Times as "one of the best known [hotels] in the county" in 1975, the Chase Hotel once held a three-star rating and promised top facilities in beautiful grounds.

Staff at The Chase Hotel, Ross-on-Wye

And the future looked bright by the late 1980s, when it was acquired by Crown Hotels International, who announced a £1.5 million scheme of expansion and refurbishments in 1989.

But by February 1991, the tides had turned and the Chase, then owned by Amescourt, closed as the liquidators were called in, much to the shock of locals.

The company had also owned The Tudor in Malvern, and another in Woolacombe, Devon, both of which had closed down months before.

Hope was on the horizon, however, when the hotel was sold in June that year to the Porter Group of Companies, whose spokesperson Alan Porter said at the time that they hoped to put the Chase Hotel back on the map, with an "extensive programme" of refurbishments and alterations planned.

Controversy hit just four years later, in 1995, when the Porter Group proposed plans for a large commercial and leisure development on land adjoining the hotel.

The Chase Hotel, Ross-on-Wye, in the 1990s

It included a proposed foodstore, petrol station, leisure centre, nursing home, retirement flats, and a car park for 650 cars.

The plans for a supermarket were given a unanimous thumbs down by town councillors, with more than 300 objectors turning up at the Larruperz Centre for a meeting to discuss the proposals in July 1996.

An expert report later concluded that the planned supermarket would be detrimental to the town.

Plans for a leisure complex and bedroom extension were approved in 2002, while an application to build 24 apartments was made by owners Camanoe Estates and later withdrawn in December that year.

Plans were also submitted and refused in 2003 to build 18 apartments, and later in 2005 to build two, two storey apartment blocks in the grounds of the Gloucester Road hotel, offering a total of 18 apartments, each with three bedrooms.

The Chase Hotel, Ross-on-Wye, 2005

The 2005 plans were thrown out by Herefordshire councillors, despite being recommended for approval by the planning department, with one councillor saying it would be "criminal" to allow the development.

Further plans were submitted in 2006 to build nine apartments, which were approved, but plans for another six apartments were refused in 2007.

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