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Gloucestershire Business News

Historic Cotswolds property to become home with holiday rentals

Historic Cotswolds property Glenfall House is to be transformed back into a home with holiday rentals.

Plans were approved on Monday (Oct 21) to return the main house to its former glory with modern extensions and alterations removed.

Part of the estate will also be opened up for holiday rentals with new buildings constructed housing five apartments and leisure facilities including an indoor swimming pool, yoga studio games room and gym.

The Regency villa began to fall into decline in the 1980s when it was transformed from a country house into a retreat and then conference centre.

Most recently it was used as a wedding and events venue but this shut in December 2022.

A heritage statement submitted to Cheltenham Borough Council said this period heralded the "slow decline" in the condition of the building and the addition of poor quality alterations and extensions.

Applicants Mr and Mrs D. Bunner said the "significant alterations" to the Grade-II listed building over the years had "adversely altered the setting of the country house".

They hope to rectify this by demolishing the old coach house, stables and 20th century buildings and removing extension and alterations made to the main house over the years.

Historic features will be restored and the layout inside the house altered to turn it back into a family home.

A statement submitted by Yiangou Design on the applicants behalf said: "The whole design approach for the submitted scheme has been driven by an in depth study of heritage significance and a passionate desire to upgrade this important historic building for future generations to enjoy."

History

The estate has been lived on as far back as the 1790s, starting out as a farmhouse named The

Gutterfall.

It evolved into a small gentleman's estate during the 19th century, being rebuilt in brick in 1808 for Charles Higgs and renamed Glenfall in 1817.

In 1819 Edward Iggulden, a wealthy brewer from Deal, Kent and agent with the East India Shipping Company, purchased the estate and created a picturesque landscape, which included pleasure grounds for tourists that included The Glen and its waterfall.

It was then owned by various families and substantially extended and altered to provide a house for entertaining, set in a formal garden, surrounded by parkland and farmland.

In the 1980s the house and part of the grounds were bought by the Community of St Peter and St Paul, and in 1991 the community gifted the estate to the Diocese of Gloucester. The house and the gardens were subsequently restored by the Glenfall House Trust.

The house was opened as a conference centre in 1992 and then transformed into a 23-bed hotel and wedding venue. This closed in December 2022.

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