Hereford's Elmcroft manor house can be turned into flats

Lying in two acres of wooded grounds, the mid-19th century, grade II listed Elmcroft off Venns Lane, on the edge of the Aylestone Hill conservation area, originally belonged to Rev Edward Bulmer, grandfather of Percy Bulmer who founded the local cider dynasty.

Having been used as a hospital during the Second World War, it was later converted into a council-run care home, with an extension added in the 1970s, but has lain vacant and deteriorating since 2008.

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It was put on the market in spring last year with a guide price of £700,000.

A year ago local firm Manbro Developments, which has a track record in repurposing old buildings in the county, put forward a plan to turn the three-storey house and its outbuildings, then in “a state of advanced disrepair”, into modest flats “suited to individual or downsizing occupiers”, along with four larger four-bedroom flats in the extension.

The conversion of Elmhurst would create smaller flats, for which there is high demand in the city (Image: from application)

Planning officer Ollie Jones has now backed the scheme, giving “substantial weight” to the provision of 22 new homes “within a sustainable location”, and to the reuse of the “underutilised” site.

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This outweighed the “harm to the significance” of the building from its being subdivided and its historic form being altered, he concluded.

Under a so-called section 106 deal, the developers will give the council £28,534 to provide new sports facilities locally.

They must also submit a travel plan and tree management plan for the site.