AN historic town centre pub with links to a Civil War battle is set for a new lease of life as nine apartments.

Forest planners approved the scheme to redevelop the appropriately-named Kings Head - which stands on a site that was defended by Roundheads in the 1643 Battle of Coleford.

Closed since 2011, the site of the currently diliapidated building in the town’s Conservation Area at the Bank Street and Gloucester Road crossroads was the scene of fierce fighting 376 years ago on February 20, when a shot fired by a Roundhead reputedly killed a Royalist officer in the nearby Angel Hotel.

By the 1700s, the pub was an important caoching inn serving the Gloucester to Monmouth route, but had become less genteel in the early 1900s, when police obtained permission from magistrates to brick up back doors to stop miscreants escaping.

In its final incarnation as a pub, new owners opened a nightclub - Blondes - at the back of the premises in 2010, but the whole business closed after Christmas 2011.

And despite new buyer Ivor Squire pledging to reopen “a nice traditional pub” in 2012, it turned out last orders had already been taken, with the pub staying shut until today.

Since closing eight years ago, redevelopment work has been undertaken inside the premises without permission, but planners have now retrospectively approved it and cleared the way for further works.

The pub building itself is set to be converted into five apartments, with the function room being replaced by four new one-bedroom apartments.

Forest planners approved the plan with several conditions, including that the apartments are sound conditioned adequately and a proper archaeological investigation is carried out, as the site is part of the town’s medieval settlement.

A Review article written about the pub by Ray Allen 21 years ago and highlighted on the gloucestershirepubs.co.uk website said: “It was reputedly from here that a Roundhead bullet killed a Royalist officer in the adjacent Angel Hotel during the Civil War.

“By 1785 it was becoming an important coaching inn for stagecoaches serving the Gloucester - Monmouth route.

“It has had a more bumpy record this century – as early as 1904 the police successfully asked the magistrates to order up the bricking up of two back doors as they couldn’t cope with malefactors eluding them when they came in the front door”.

Conservation adviser David Haigh told planners considering the new scheme: “Although not listed, the building is a historic one which should be regarded as a non-designated heritage asset, and its design and detailing and prominent location means that the building makes a very significant contribution to the character of the Conservation Area and indeed to the setting of the adjacent listed Bank House.

“The current state of the building is the result of years of neglect, poor maintenance and poor quality

20th century alterations and extensions.”

Civi War battle reenactment group the Sealed Knot hold an annual parade in the town on the anniversary of the Battle of Coleford, with town mayor Cllr Nick Penny joining them six weeks ago to fire a musket.