Newark and Sherwood District Council’s planning committee approve updates to Grade II-listed Ollerton Hall

Changes to a planning application to convert a former country house into apartments have been approved.

Grade II*-listed Ollerton Hall was built circa 1700 for the Markham family, who were Catholics living in a largely Protestant area, and during investigations a secret chapel in which the family could practice their faith was discovered.

The hall has been empty and in a state of disrepair for many years, and was included on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register.

Planning permission was granted in 1990 to convert the building into a health care facility which included a single storey extension — which was built in the wrong place and subsequently demolished in 2007.

A previous scheme for a conversion to 25 residential units by the previous owner was refused and dismissed on appeal 12 years ago.

Then another application to form 25 dwellings with associated parking, public open space, bins stores and flood compensation was refused in 2013.

Another application was submitted for change of use and conversion of hall to eight new apartments with new bin and cycle store, and approved in April 2023.

The plans will see one additional apartment being created at first floor level and another on the second floor.

Nottinghamshire County Council Highways and Historic England have offered no objections, and the plans have also seen the support of Ollerton Town Council.

On Thursday (February 13) Newark and Sherwood District Council’s planning committee discussed the latest amended plans which would see the hall converted into 10 apartments, as opposed to the eight aforementioned apartments that currently have approval.

The alterations proposed were mostly internal within the building, with the only additional external alterations being moving the position of a new roof light on the flat roof and adding matching roof tiles to a small area of inner facing roof slope.

The members spoke in favour of seeing a building with such heritage coming back into use, with Celia Brooks saying that in the 50 years she has lived in the area, she always thought ‘what a shame’ when she saw the state the building is in:

“It’s such a beautiful building in substantial grounds and the changes would reflect the history of the building, so I don’t mind them and I think lots of people would want to live in that wonderful building.

“It’s been a long time coming and I’d be pleased to get it done.”

Fellow member Emma Oldham also said that she was in favour of the plans and that the TLC and dedication to rejuvenate the building were “marvellous”.

Keith Melton said it was nice to see something finally being done with the building and that it would be a good high profile, positive story for the council.

The lack of greener energy for the building, such as underfloor heating or air source heat pumps, was raised, but this would not have been possible due to the hall’s construction and building materials.

The plans were unanimously approved.