Astbury Hall is a

stately home An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

, with a 320-acre estate, at

Chelmarsh Chelmarsh is a village and civil parish in the English county of Shropshire. It lies 4 miles south of Bridgnorth on the B4555 road to Highley. Notable buildings The main feature of the village St. Peter's church. This is an example of the De ...

, near

Bridgnorth Bridgnorth is a town in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the 2011 Census was 12,079. History B ...

, in

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

, England. The building was destroyed by fire in 1889, and rebuilt by Edmund Southwell (mayor of

, 1895-1897) in 1891. John Arthur Buston, Master of the Wheatland hunt, lived at Astbury from -. It was the home of

K. K. Downing Kenneth Keith Downing Jr. (born 27 October 1951) is an English guitarist and a former member of the heavy metal band Judas Priest. Early life and career Downing was born in West Bromwich, West Midlands. In the late 1960s, he developed a p ...

, former guitarist with

Judas Priest Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band formed in Birmingham in 1969. They have sold over 50 million albums and are frequently ranked as one of the greatest metal bands of all time. Despite an innovative and pioneering body of work in th ...

, who had a championship-standard golf course built in the grounds. In 2012 there were plans to open a hotel and luxury residential lodges funded by Regentsmead. In October 2017 the stately home went into administration. Administrators, FRP Advisory, blamed “tougher economic times within the wider corporate hospitality market” which had put "unsustainable pressure on the cashflow of the estate under its current financial structure." It is currently for sale with an asking price of £10 million. On Tuesday 24 April 2018 The Astbury announced it would reopen soon. The launch party took place on 1 July 2018. In March, 2019, it was reported that there was a £50m plan set for approval at The Astbury.

Shropshire Council Shropshire Council is the local authority of Shropshire (district), Shropshire, in England, comprising the ceremonial county of Shropshire except Telford and Wrekin. It is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority, having the powers ...

's planning officers set Downing's estate to be transformed into a huge leisure complex including a leisure and spa building, two swimming pools, a farm shop, a function room, restaurant and spa, an outdoor lido pool, tennis courts, bowling greens, a new nine-hole golf course and an 18-hole putting green; with the addition of 300 wooden lodges. Local residents expressed concerns about the impact of the development on the nature of Eardington and added traffic on small nearby roads.

The National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

expressed their own worries of the work on the nearby

Dudmaston Hall Dudmaston Hall is a 17th-century country house in the care of the National Trust in the Severn Valley, Shropshire, England. Dudmaston Hall is located near the village of Quatt, a few miles south of the market town of Bridgnorth, just off the ...

, but Shropshire Council's planning team decided that there were no grounds on which the development should be refused. Case Officer Richard Fortune said that the report recommending the application was approved, and that the extra traffic on the B4555 would be acceptable. He also noted that it would not generate a significant amount of trips compared to the already existing number of vehicles travelling along the highway. Fortune also said that Shropshire Council as highway authority "would need to demonstrate that the B4555 and surrounding highway network do not have the capacity to support a development of this nature. It is not considered a highway objection could be sustained on this basis." The impact of the volume of traffic on some junctions in

, most notably B4555/B4363 and Oldbury Road/Hollybush Road, have raised concerns. The report backing from the council's economic team claimed that the development could bring as much as £15 million ($19 million) of investment into the county. In a statement released from FCFM Group Limited in December 2018, they said that when they announced the plans at the time, they claimed that the development could be worth more than £3.5 million ($4.6 million) a year to the local economy.

References

External links

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{{Authority control Buildings and structures in Shropshire Golf clubs and courses in Shropshire Judas Priest