A huge stately home which has been occupied by American oil prospectors and cavalrymen has gone on the market.
The Kelham Hall and Country Park estate has been subject to an array of developments over the past few years, with the Grade-I listed building ready to be used as a 103-bed hotel and spa with full planning consent to do so.
Kelham Hall was designed by Gothic revival architect Sir George Gilbert Scott, who designed and altered more than 800 buildings during his career.
The Victorian estate was his precursor to the Midland Hotel building at London's St Pancras railway station.
It was completed in 1863 for the Manners-Sutton family, relations of the Dukes of Rutland, and then sold in 1903 to the Society of the Sacred Mission.
The Mission ran an Anglican theological college and in the 1920s added the Great Chapel, today referred to as the Kelham Dome.
During the First World War it was occupied by the military, and during the Second World War its tenants included a cavalry regiment and the oilmen from Texas and Oklahoma who drilled in the Eakring area.
The theological college closed its doors in 1972 and the following year the hall was acquired as the headquarters of the newly-constituted Newark and Sherwood District Council.
Businessman Jonathan Pass most recently acquired the estate from the council for £4million, and he obtained planning permission for its use as a wedding venue in 2017.
Mr Pass previously told Nottinghamshire Live it has the potential to become a "real gem for the local economy."
Sitting on the banks of the River Trent just north-west of Newark, Kelham Hall and its 44 acres of gardens and parkland is now on the market with a guide price of £10million.
Business and property advisor Christie & Co, which has been instructed to sell the estate, said the previous owner has obtained full planning and listed building consent from English Heritage.
It requires almost no structural change.
Ryan Lynn, director of corporate hotels at Christie & Co who is handling the sale, said: “We are very pleased to be marketing this fantastic development opportunity in the heart of Nottinghamshire.
"Kelham Hall is one of the most iconic and historic buildings in the area and offers a buyer the chance to create what could be one of the best hotels in the country.
"This is a great opportunity for a buyer to secure a substantial property and redevelop it over the next 12 to 24 months, allowing the business to open into a resurgent market."
