Hotel that once housed Aston Villa youngsters to become sheltered care housing

Commercial property agency Siddall Jones, which has offices in Birmingham and Dudley, marketed and sold Drayton Court Hotel, in Fazeley, near Tamworth, for £1.25 million to a property trader who plans to convert the building and rent it to a specialist care provider.

Youth players, triallists and staff from Aston Villa were regular guests at the hotel, parts of which date back to the 1780s, as the club’s academy and training ground at Bodymoor Heath is only a few miles away.

Other top names who regularly stayed at the hotel between 1996 and 2016 included the likes of Gabby Agbonlahor and Gary Cahill.

The Georgian country house venue had been owned and operated for the last 25 years by hotelier Katie Bogue, but she made the sale as a result of growing family care commitments in the wake of Covid-19.

The purchaser is David Kendrick, who operates as a commercial property trader via Penbale Ltd, and he explained he would be converting the premises into sheltered housing, subject to planning permission.

Mr Kendrick said: “I’ve been looking out for decent property investments and saw how this beautiful property could actually make a lovely development of sheltered care homes for adults with a variety of special care needs.

“If everything goes to plan, we will convert what was a 24-bedroomed hotel into 12 two-bedroomed flatlets which will made perfect sheltered housing homes.

“I’ve already got a care specialist willing to house some of their clients in the property once planning is arranged and the conversion is completed.”

He added: “What really attracted me was the chance to respect the integrity of this historic building and do some good for society at the same time.”

Ms Bogue explained that she had received several offers for the hotel, a success which she put down to the pricing and marketing skills of Ed Siddall-Jones.

She said: “I’ve enjoyed two and a half decades at Drayton Court with many lovely guests, including various Premier League players who in their youth attended Villa’s academy at Bodymoor Heath.

“I never planned to sell, but I need more time now to look after a family member who has had more care needs during Covid-19.

“I actually had three offers and so was very lucky to be able to make a choice of who I wanted to sell it to. This was down to Ed, who priced the property at a realistic level for the market at the time, which made it exceptionally good value for money.

“I was very impressed by David Kendrick’s plans to maintain the fabric of the building, and it’s comforting to know that it will be put to good use.”

Ed Siddall-Jones, managing director of Siddall Jones, said: “This was a fascinating deal because it involved the desire of both the vendor and purchaser to look after a special old building.

“Some of the alternative potential purchases could have seen demolition for new-builds, and so it was both interesting and fulfilling to arrange a deal that retained this building for posterity.”

Siddall Jones was launched by Ed Siddall-Jones in 2012 and has grown steadily from one office to two and from one member of staff to six.