A PLAN to breathe new life into an historic ‘haunted’ pub has been given the go ahead at the second time of asking.
Applicants Dynamic Construction Ltd of Worcester say they want to upgrade and relaunch it as a pub - which legend has it is haunted by a headless Cavalier named Charlie – with upmarket B&B accommodation, a restaurant and a bar.
The original plan to build new homes in the half-timbered pub’s overgrown car park was turned down in March on the grounds that the two-bedroomed properties would lead to a loss of privacy for neighbours, including a home for the elderly.
But Forest planners gave their seal of approval last week after hearing that the homes in the amended plan would not overlook St Bartholomews or invade the privacy of other neighbours.
Named after a highwayman’s hound, the Grade II-listed Black Dog was a Royalist stronghold when it was a farm in the Civil War more than 370
years ago.
According to the Gloucestershire Pubs website, the Cavalier’s ghostly presence haunts the Church Street premises, alongside the spirit of the Lavender Lady, a woman who sold nosegays to ward off the stench of unwashed England in the Middle Ages.
The pub, on the boundary of the town’s conservation area, closed down in June 2015 and was bought by the applicants in 2016 with a view to upgrading the four-storey building.
They already have listed building permission to redevelop and reopen the pub, but said they couldn’t fund it without building the new homes.
Planning agent Angela Wadley said: “This planning application will secure the longterm future of The Black Dog by providing on site owner manager accommodation, with good quality rooms for bed and breakfast, and resturant and public bar to attract the local community to bring it back to life.
“The works to The Black Dog and the carpark are desirable and necessary to get the property back into a good state of repair, to provide a good business which can generate income to secure all future repairs and maintenance.”