A PROMINENT market town pub with 21 bedrooms has gone on sale for the price of a semi-detached home.

The Fleece Hotel in Richmond closed suddenly earlier this month and has been placed on the market with a guide price of £250,000 for the freehold.

However, the new owners will have their work cut out to bring the accommodation up to modern standards, with the hotel rooms not thought to have been used for more than 20 years.

The property is being sold by CBRE estate agents with an open viewing due to take place on Friday, January 23.

CBRE director Sam Frankland said: "We don't think the rooms have been used for 20 to 30 years and would need extensive renovation.

"But we think it would make a great small hotel."

The four-storey, grade II-listed building includes a large bar, kitchen, cellar, stores and upstairs function room.

The pub is owned by Stonegate Pub Company, which runs more than 600 venues across the UK.

The striking building was built by renowned Darlington architect George Gordon Hoskins in 1897.

Mr Hoskins also drew up the plans for Middlesbrough Town Hall and the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, in Darlington, now Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College.

The sale documents state that the property covers 9,200 square feet.

They add: "A large detached Gothic revival Victorian former hotel of brick construction with bay windows to the front.

"The roof is multi-pitched slate extending over a former stable block at the rear with small enclosed yard. There is also a single storey flat roof infill to the rear."

In 2003, the pub was briefly renamed Tanya's Charms in honour of local resident Tanya Robinson, now Tanya Bardsley, who won the FHM High Street Honeys competition.

The pub sign featuring a sheep was replaced with a picture of the model.

When news of the pub's closure emerged last week, Richmond councillor Stuart Parsons expressed hope that the prominent building would be taken on by someone willing to invest in the property.