AN archaeological exploration is set to take place in an area which was the original village of Barrow before a major hotel chain can build there.

Town planners are recommending an archaeological evaluation is carried out at the site of the former Barrow police station, on the corner of Market Street and Duke Street, before a 127-bed Holiday Inn Express hotel and restaurant can be developed there.

A historic environment officer from Cumbria County Council has highlighted that records indicate that there is "potential for archaeological assets to survive on the site" of the original village of Barrow, which was first mentioned in documents dating to 1190.

Barrow Borough Council planning committee has been recommended to grant permission to demolish the old police station and allow a Holiday Inn Express to be built at the site, but with conditions, including the archaeological work.

The examination would give the opportunity "to determine the existence of any remains of of archaeological interest within the site and for the preservation, examination or recording of such remains."

The historic environment officer recommends to the borough council that the work is commissioned "at the expense of the developer."

The former police station was built in the 1950s and before that the site housed a fire station and part of an open market.

The former police station was put on the market in 2015 for a figure believed to be in the region of £850,000.

Holiday Inn Express wants to move into the heart of Barrow town centre and create new jobs.

Franklin Ellis Architects says development of the site would be a "key regeneration" project, transforming a vacant building, creating new jobs and meeting the need for business and leisure accommodation.

The proposal is for a four-storey building with hotel accommodation, a ground floor restaurant and a car park.

The borough council and the applicants had discussed the viability of converting all, or part, of the existing police station as an alternative to demolition. But it was determined that the building was inappropriate for a hotel conversion.

The Victorian Society raised concerns that the new hotel would be harmful to the setting of the grade II*-listed Barrow Town Hall and the grade II-listed Hotel Majestic, and would be detrimental to the special interest of the Barrow Central Conservation Area.

The Historic Society said amendments to plan, including replacing cladding with brickwork to the area near the Hotel Majestic and introducing decorative brickwork patterning to the ground floor to Market Street, "represent a minor improvement to the scheme in heritage terms."

The planning committee was meeting today.

The original village of Barrow

The original village of Barrow is first mentioned in documents dating to 1190.

Barrow was initially established as a grange to Furness Abbey and it grew into a small village until its expansion with the arrival of the railway in the 1840s.

The village of Barrow had been in the parish of Dalton-in-Furness as Dalton had a church.

A historic environment officer for Cumbria County Council has said: "The proposed development site offers a rare opportunity to determine whether remains pre-dating the mid-19th century industrial development of Barrow survive."

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