A DERELICT pub which has stood empty for almost a decade could be bulldozed and replaced with housing, according to estate agents.

The Queen’s Head, in Old Road, Surrex, has finally gone on the market for almost £1million, nearly two years after a fire ripped through the building.

A listing with agents Hawksley Pearce describes the site on the A120 as a “substantial site considered suitable for residential development”.

But the Colchester and North East Essex Campaign For Real Ale would prefer the pub to re-open to punters instead of being turned into homes.

Group spokesman Paul Duffield said: “Obviously, if it does get turned into homes it would go against what we stand for, but it has been in that state for a long time now.

“It was very successful when it was open – it’s in a prime location and it managed to pick up a lot of passing trade."

According to the agents the owners would ideally like to “dispose of their interest” on an unconditional basis.

It is believed there are three separate owners of the land, the building and the access to the pub, and the freehold has an asking price of £900,000.

Over the years the pub has had several different names including the Surrex Inn, the American Pilot, the East Anglian Roadhouse and the Porterhouse Inn.

Former landlords Christine Johnson and Paul Lofthouse invested thousands of pounds to re-open the pub in 2008 after it had been shut for about 13 years.

But they closed the business in 2011 before a fire ripped through the building in 2017, leaving it badly damaged and without a roof.

It has since become an eyesore alongside the A120 between Braintree and Colchester, and has been targeted by vandals.

Coggeshall Parish Council leader Nick Unsworth said he welcomed the idea of something being done with the land.

He said: “The parish council are aware of the property being marketed for sale and would welcome development and improvement of the site.

“As yet a formal application has not been submitted and the site is not an allocated site for housing in the emerging Coggeshall Neighbourhood Plan.”