About 120 people were left without their Christmas lunch when fire gutted a 250-year-old conference and banqueting centre in the grounds of West Midland Safari Park.

The visitors who had booked their celebration meal at Spring Grove House were turned away at the gates by security staff at the popular tourist attraction.

A wedding party in the new year is also now under threat.

Fifty firefighters from around the region were called to tackle the blaze which broke out at around 10.10pm on Christmas Eve.

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 About 120 people were left without their Christmas lunch when fire gutted a 250-year-old conference and banqueting centre in the grounds of West Midland Safari Park.

The visitors who had booked their celebration meal at Spring Grove House were turned away at the gates by security staff at the popular tourist attraction.

A wedding party in the new year is also now under threat.

Fifty firefighters from around the region were called to tackle the blaze which broke out at around 10.10pm on Christmas Eve.

The Bewdley safari park’s head warden Bob Lawrence said: “The building has been totally gutted. It’s just the four walls left.

“The conference rooms, board room and restaurant are gone. The damage would be hundreds of thousands of pounds, maybe even more.

“It is very sad as we had about 120 people booked to have Christmas lunch. We also have a lot of weddings there. One was booked for the beginning of January.”

Mr Lawrence said it was not yet known whether the building could be saved as a structural assessment would have to be carried out.

Kidderminster firefighter James Gough said around 95 per cent of the building had been destroyed.

He said: “The security guard had been walking around and saw the building was on fire. We had help from West Midlands and Shropshire and we finished about 3am next morning.”

Spring Grove House was built by Samuel Skey, an apprentice grocer in Bewdley, on 270 acres of land he bought from Lord Foley in 1775.

Completed in 1790 and landscaped by Capability Brown, the house is next to springs which bubble up through the underlying sandstone, from which the house derives the name Spring Grove.

The painter, John Constable, visited the house frequently between 1811 and 1835 to see his future wife, Maria Bicknell, a relative of Samuel Skey. Several of the artist’s sketches still exist of the estate.

By Rebecca Jones