A former Grade II listed pub transformed into a four bedroom house is on the market at Savills in Amersham with a guide price of £925,000.

The Pheasant in Plantation Road, Amersham, closed for business in December 2012. Chiltern District Council hoped to save it as an asset for the community but without a buyer the rot set in and the fabric of the building began to fall apart.

Following three failed planning applications by locally based Inland Homes to redevelop the site for housing, the developer retained the pub to convert to residential but sold the majority of the land that previously belonged to The Pheasant including the car park and pub garden to another housebuilder.

This week four of the five houses built by Troy Homes are under offer and the agents say there’s interest from three separate buyers in the remaining new build.

Meanwhile Inland Homes has now completed the restoration of the former listed pub.

The ground floor includes a large kitchen, dining/study area with fireplace and a double aspect lounge with large bay window.

There are two staircases to the first floor: one leads to the master suite, the other to three further double bedrooms and the main bathroom.

The future owners of the converted pub will have their own private garden, also two allocated spaces in the new car park that also serves the new houses.

To comply with planning consent, there’s one other building alongside the hostelry that has been refurbished by Inland for use as a nursery school.

Stephen Fairfax who is handling negotiations at Savills says there have been no takers for the day nursery since the development was launched on the market a month ago.

“The main room is large enough for about eight-to-ten children,” he guesses.

“It could have an alternative use if the buyer of the former pub wanted it – maybe a consultancy or a cottage industry which wouldn’t generate an appreciable amount of traffic.”

*Latest figures from CAMRA, the real ale consumers’ champion, show 63 hostelries in the south east were lost to the trade in the last six months of 2018.

Two pubs a week, 11 a month closed in the region which includes Bucks between July and the end of December last year.

The total number of pubs open for business in the south east fell from 6,404 in July to 6,341 in December.

As a percentage of the total still functioning across England, Scotland and Wales, the one per cent reduction in the south east was second only to Yorkshire and Humber where 1.1 per cent of pubs shut up shop.

Across the UK as a whole with the exception of Northern Ireland, landlords in 14 pubs called Last Orders for the final time each week during the six months under review, a slight improvement on the rate of 18 a week the previous year.

CAMRA’s national chairman Jackie Palmer wants the government to reduce beer duty in pubs to level the playing field with supermarket prices.

She is also urging the Chancellor to lower business rates “to fix the unfair amount pubs pay” and introduce stronger legislation “to enable pub tenants to get a fair deal from their big business property owners – both moves the government has promised but is yet to carry out.”

The house is close to the junction with Green Lane.