A LANDMARK former hotel near Tenbury is in the final stages of transformation before opening as a care home that will create up to 50 local jobs.

Cadmore Lodge, that was for many years a well-known hotel and wedding venue in the area, will open in the summer as a residential care home.

The recruitment of staff has already started and a chef has been appointed along with the care home manager Claire Beddoes.

However, there will be up to a further 50 full and part-time jobs at the new Cadmore Lodge Residential Care Home.

“We will be taking on people to undertake a number of different roles,” said Claire Beddoes.

“There will be care workers, people to work in the laundry and the restaurant. We will also need gardeners and a groundsman as well as other people.”

One of the more unusual roles for a care home will be the need for a green keeper.

A feature of the care home is that it will retain the Cadmore Lodge Hotel nine hole golf course. The golf course will be available to the care home residents and their visitors but people from the local area will also be able to enjoy a round of golf on a ‘pay and play basis.’

The other facilities include a swimming pool and fishing in the grounds.

There will be other benefits to the local economy including a commitment to use local suppliers.

“We will be using shops and suppliers in the area and already have in place arrangements with traders in and around Tenbury,” said Mrs Beddoes.

A number of changes have been made to the hotel, which is a two storey building, to make it suitable for older people some of whom may have difficulties with mobility.

This work, that is being undertaken by builders from the area, is expected to be completed by early summer.

The facility has 29 rooms that can be used as single or double rooms.

Mrs Beddoes said that there had been interest from people in Tenbury and the Teme Valley but also from further afield including the London area.

The care home will be a permanent home for some residents but will also offer short term respite type care.

A lodge in the grounds of the former hotel will also be available for visitors who have come to see family that are living at the facility.

There will always be at least two people on site but it will not be a nursing home and therefore will not provide care for people with special medical needs such as those with dementia.

The minimum age for residents has been set at 55 years.

Cadmore Lodge will be part of the Stourbridge-based Ephraims Care Group, a care home operator with four care homes across the West Midlands.

The group, a family run business started by owners Roger and Margaret Ephraims, was founded in 1995.