HERE is an artist's impression showing how the mood of history will remain unchanged for Aldwark Manor, the hotel near Alne, when its £5.2 million revamp plans are finally complete.

Work has only just finished on a new £2.2 million health spa for the three-star hotel, which already boasts an 18-hole golf course amid its 100 acres of countryside.

Now preparations are being made for a September start on a £3 million project to extend the hotel from 28 bedrooms to 60 as well as building a 120-seat brasserie overlooking the course and a 180-seat function suite which can be used for conferences. It should be finished by next May.

Maintaining its mood of history is important not just because the name Aldwark derives from the old Saxon word for "old (earth) work" redolent of its one-time use as a defensive fort.

But also because the Manor, built by Lord Walsingham as a wedding present for his daughter in the late 1700s, was requisitioned by the Home Office at the outset of the Second World War - and was the place where Wing Commander Guy Gibson planned the legendary Dambusters raid.

The hotel was bought four years ago by Newcastle businessman Brad Holbrook, who as a keen golfer lavished £1 million improving the golf course, then turned his attention to improving the hotel.

John Milburn, the hotel's general manager, said: "Our aim is to make Aldwark Manor a more complete business with all-year-round service, appealing to the health and beauty, leisure, conference and golf markets.

"The architects, Unwin Jones of Carlisle, who designed the health spa have done an excellent job in designing the extended building to ensure that continued sense of history."