Ex-Judas Priest guitarist to develop luxury hotel

Former Judas Priest guitarist KK Downing intends to build a luxury country house hotel in the grounds of his Shropshire estate.

The multimillion-pound plans outline the development of a 63-bedroom hotel with an indoor swimming pool, spa and restaurant at the 320-acre Astbury Hall estate, near Bridgnorth. It also includes the building of a clubhouse for the estate's golf course, which Downing designed himself and opened in 2010.

Downing, who was born in West Bromwich, said that he intended the hotel and leisure facilities to compete with the best in the world.

He told the local newspaper, the Shropshire Star, that he had the vision for creating something special and would bring in professionals to run the operation.

"We proved last year that Astbury is financially viable and no doubt has the potential to be a fantastic and much-needed development for the local area," he said.

"The aim is to be a flagship sports and leisure facility to seriously put Bridgnorth and the surrounding areas on the map, not just nationally but internationally.

"I have spent most of my own personal fortune on this. It has been hard work but also rewarding and enjoyable to see it grow and grow, but I'm now keen to speed up the process.

I think the golf course is the best around, with the nearest of similar quality being the Belfry."

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By Janet Harmer

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