Work to start on apartments at historic Northampton hotel

The apartment building will replace an outbuilding at the Plough Hotel

Final approval has been given for apartments to be built alongside a hotel that played a major role hosting US military personnel in World War Two.

A two-storey outbuilding at the Plough Hotel in Northampton will be demolished to make way for 35 apartments.

Outline planning permission was given three years ago, but details such as landscaping and parking at the Bridge Street site have only just been approved.

A similar plan was rejected in 2016.

The Plough Hotel was originally built as a coaching inn in the 1890s.

It still has a Victorian-style exterior with brick, stone masonry and mock beams.

During the 1939-45 conflict it was used by the American Red Cross Society as a leave centre for US troops and a total of 174,000 servicemen stayed at the hotel.

'Tense' atmosphere

In 2005, Joy Fielder told BBC Radio Northampton about her experiences helping out at hotel in the 1940s.

"On the day that we were all getting keyed up for D-Day [6 June 1944], we had just over 300 troops who came through the Plough for their meal on the way to the invasion, and they were going through straight from us," she said.

"The atmosphere was very tense that day, but at other times when they were coming to Northampton on leave, it was all very happy and jolly and it was lovely."

There have been many proposals for the hotel in recent years - a plan by New Life Hotels in 2016 to build 56 apartments in the same location was refused as the design of the development was "unacceptable due to its scale, design and choice of materials".

Following the refusal, changes were made to the plans and the new apartment building will be "of traditional design, of a smaller scale" while using relevant brick detailing and other materials.

The complex will be three storeys tall with car parking at the rear.

William Barter, who represents the Deanshanger ward, told West Northamptonshire Council's South Planning Committee meeting: "I'm pretty familiar with this area.

"I see The Plough Hotel every time I drive into Northampton and it's often struck me as a building that should be much more of a feature than it is, and if this helps, then jolly good."