Controversy surrounds the future of a 350-year-old timber and brick building at Woodhouse Farm, Pensax, mentioned in the 1649 Parliamentary Survey and located to the north of the main farmhouse in an area of natural beauty.

Accessed via a private shared drive, the present owners, Mr and Mrs J Stanhope, want to convert the historic building into a four-bedroomed home.

However, the application has raised concerns from Pensax Parish Council over a development they believe "would be 'new build' in an area of great landscape value but with little or no character of the original building retained".

County and district councillor Reg Farmer said: "This isn't just any barn, it is a rare example of an ancient building associated with the rural and farming history of the Teme Valley.

"The application is a unique opportunity to preserve it and by nature of the building it is going to be expensive, but that is down to the applicant.

"There is a lot of untidiness about the site but if planners are sympathetic to restoration, the barn will eventually become a magnificent building, and it is important to realise that the countryside does need to be lived in."

Andrew Moody, planning officer for Malvern Hills District Council, confirmed: "The applicant's proposal for a four bedroomed building concerns us, particularly the degree of reconstruction.

"It is a building in two parts, timber and brick, much of the brick work carried out as late as the 1980s, and we are worried that what little is left of the original cannot easily be converted."

The owners have called for a survey from an expert in timber framed buildings and planners are awaiting the report.

Asked what will happen to the remains of the ancient barn should planning permission be refused, Mr Moody added: "I honestly don't know at this stage. We have to wait for the report which I expect will have little influence on our original conclusion."