Blaze rips through Lea Manor Hotel

A fire ripped through a former landmark hotel near Wolverhampton today.

Fire crews had to use a hydraulic platform to put out the blaze at the Lea Manor Hotel in Albrighton.

Crews from Albrighton, Telford, Codsall, Wellington, Tweedale and Shrewsbury were called out at 5.25am to tackle the flames.

Click on the image on the right to see more pictures from the scene.

It is the latest fire at the boarded-up hotel, which was a top nightspot during the 1960s and 70s.

In February 2011 arsonists broke into the business and set alight bundles of paperwork being stored in the main office.

The hotel, in Holyhead Road, has been closed since 2007 and nothing of any value is still left on the site.

In 2010 travellers moved onto the site twice, just months after plans to turn the hotel into two luxury homes were withdrawn.

The car park has also been targeted by fly-tippers.

The hotel was built by late Wolverhampton businessman Robert Eaton, who sold it in 1986. In 2007, the site had a £1 million price tag but it has been on the market ever since.

The site was originally Lea Farm, a residential building associated with chicken farming.

It was last used in 2007 by Bridgnorth District Council to rehouse victims of flooding in Worfield.

The community lived in the hotel for around six months while their homes were dried out and repaired.