Nearly £100k to ready neglected manor house for occupancy

Nearly £100,000 is being spent on a historic publicly-owned manor house in Hereford – possibly ahead of it being sold off.

Herefordshire Council, which owns Churchill House off Venns Lane in Aylestone Hill to the northeast of the city, has awarded a contract worth up to £92,160 to local firm to SC Joseph for external and internal work on it, “to enable the council to deliver on its obligations to maintain buildings fit for purpose”.

A council spokesperson said the spending would “address deterioration and bring the building back to a condition where it can be reoccupied”.

“The council are reviewing a number of proposals for the use of Churchill House, but these are currently confidential for commercial reasons,” they added.

In late 2023 the council’s cabinet agreed to sell off Churchill House and six other properties around the county in the expectation they would be developed for housing, so raising funds for other council projects.

Dating from the mid-19th century, the two-storey stuccoed, grade II listed building sits in extensive landscaped grounds.

It was sold to the city council in the mid-1960s and later became home to the Churchill Gardens Museum of furniture, costumes and paintings, until it closed in the early 2000s.