AN urgent attempt to save a 100-year-old building from demolition has been launched.

Worcestershire County Council Archaeological Service has applied to English Heritage to have Stourport's Drill Hall spot listed.

Last week the Shuttle/Times and News reported a planning application by John Martyn Construction to demolish the disused hall, on Lion Hill, to build new apartments.

Mike Glyde, the service's county planning archaeologist, said he was reasonably confident the structure would get a Grade II listing by the end of the month.

Defence of Britain, an English Heritage project surveying wartime monuments, had helped change perceptions of buildings of this era and nature, he added.

Stourport Civic Society had previously been advised by the organisation that the building - the last port of call in the town for Stourport men going to fight in the First World War - was not of "great architectural interest".

Chairwoman Pauline Annis said: "We are pleased to hear that English Heritage now think the building worth saving.

"It played a very important part in the social life of Stourport in the past and, restored sympathetically, could do so again."