THE Gloucester diocesan office will return next year to Hillfield House, the Denmark Road mansion in the city of Gloucester which it first occupied in the 1920s, and which has been on the market for £2 million.

It will be owned outright by Gloucester diocesan board of finance (DBF) and will bring all the diocesan teams together under one roof, including the bishops, archdeacons, diocesan board of education, and Gloucester Academies Trust.

They are all currently in rented offices in the cathedral close. As the cathedral needs more space for its own staff as the second phase of its Project Pilgrim gets under way, the diocesan administration has been searching for a permanent home for some time.

“We are pleased to share the news that plans are now under way to relocate Church House back to Hillfield House,” the diocesan secretary, Benjamin Preece Smith, said. “We love being in the cathedral close, but understand the time has come to move on. We know that our partnership with the cathedral will continue to thrive as they look to the future of the city’s greatest asset.

“We realise Hillfield House is a significant property for the city, and we look forward to welcoming people to come and see us there when we relocate next summer. We hope to make the house part of the city’s Heritage Open Day event next year.”

Accessible parking, lavatories, meeting rooms, office space, and kitchen space on the ground floor would all improve the ability to welcome visitors, he said.

The historic house, with its distinctive tower, was built in 1847, and has at various times been a family home, a wartime hospital, a driving-test centre, and Trading Standards’ offices.

The agents’ description of the property says that it “overflows with reception rooms, all set around or off a gigantean [sic] double height reception hall, complete with plasterwork mouldings, Doric pillars and a fireplace. A wide cantilevered staircase leads to a galleried landing with a logia with intricate stained glass picture windows commissioned by Charles Walker depicting the war of the barons.”