Preliminary work has started on the Kings Head Hotel in Bungay, with the project steering group developing a bid for Heritage Lottery funding.

The disused hotel in the town centre was acquired by the Bungay Castle Trust at the start of the year as the result of a bequest from the late Harry Smith.

And now a steering group is working up ambitious plans for the hotel site in conjunction with the castle which could transform both historic sites and provide a boost for business and tourism.

A number of the town’s organisations are represented on the heritage project group, one of them being the Bungay Society. And last Thursday, at its annual meeting, Olly Barnes and Chris Reeve, both members of the steering group, gave an illustrated update on the progress.

Mr Barnes said preliminary work has begun in the hotel yard at the side of the building with drainage and groundworks and it was hoped that scaffolding would be put up early in the new year for the task of improving the facade of the building. There are also plans to provide an information board on the building outlining the plans, and attractive heritage boards to cover the present unsightly windows until work is done on them.

Bungay Society chairman Terry Reeve told members that they would continue to have input into the discussions and plans for “potentially the biggest development, in historic and tourism terms, perhaps since the railway came to Bungay in 1863.”

The society is developing its own project to be included in the Heritage Lottery bid. It involves compiling a detailed archive of the historic buildings in each street and roads in the town. It will also include audio information about some of them, and other aspects of the history of the town, with the aim of installing them on certain public seats with visitors, and residents, able to press a button to listen to them.

Copies of the latest edition of Bungay Society’s Journal are available at the library for £1.