New use mooted for troubled city manor house

A long-neglected manor house in Hereford could find a new use as part of a neighbouring college.

A new planning application (number 251666) by Heart of Mercia Multi-Academy Trust, which runs Hereford Sixth Form College in Aylestone Hill, shows possible changes to the nearby Churchill House in Venns Lane.

Owned by Herefordshire Council, the grade II listed mid-19th-century house was home of the former Churchill Gardens Museum until it closed in 2002. it then housed council offices and a training centre, but it has been boarded up since 2020.

In March the council awarded a contract for work on it worth up to £92,000, in order to “bring it back to a condition where it can be reoccupied”.
Negotiations are now under way between Heart of Mercia and the council “with a view to the trust entering into a lease for the occupation of the Churchill House”, the trust’s application says.

But while left vacant, the building “has suffered from vandalism and a number of break-ins”, not helped by the “open nature of the site”, it adds.

To address this, the trust is seeking permission to put up a two-metre-high fence around the front car park and an automated gate at the car park entrance with pedestrian gate alongside.

It also wants to install seven wireless CCTV security cameras high up on the building itself.

Downplaying the move, the trust’s chief executive Peter Cooper explained: “The college is really thriving, and rather than looking at newbuilds we are exploring different options for the future and seeing where we stand.”

Comments on its application can be made until July 10.