The new owner of a run-down Dorset pub is asking to be allowed to continue with renovation works.
Planning permission has been applied for at the historic Grade 2 listed pub which once served as a schoolroom and a shop.
The proposals include some new thatching, replacement windows and doors, ground-mounted solar panels and the removal of a rear chimney stack and relocation of a flue.
The owner of the early 18th century Bottle Inn at Marshwood, Mrs Tessa Blundy, has asked Dorset Council for planning consent for the changes to the building with public comment on the proposals open until mid-December.
She comes to the project after four decades of professional architectural experience in renovation, including historic buildings in London.
READ MORE: Bottle Inn in Marshwood sold to new owners with big plans
A report to Dorset Council says the building had not been adequately maintained for a number of years and had been vandalised prior to being purchased in February 2023. It has been vacant since 2019.
Previously shown as a turnpike cottage on the road between Crewkerne and Lyme Regis the building had become a pub by the 1870s and was named the Bottle Inn to reflect that it was one of the first to sell beer in bottles.
Many changes have been made to the building over the years with one of the former outbuildings having been used as a school room and then a shop.
Among the external plans for the site are planting two rows of hedges and bringing in two Beech trees to replace a pair of Ash trees which had to be felled.
Said a planning agent for the owner: “The pub is of widely acknowledged communal significance, having been a longstanding community hub, demonstrating collective memory and social value.
"It was designated an Asset of Community Value in the most recent Upper Marshwood Vale Neighbourhood Plan (2019). The building is clearly worthy of conservation, which will involve some works subject to listed building consent, in order to secure its future.”
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