A well-known chartered surveyors and auctioneers is hoping to expand its business after submitting plans to develop one of its buildings.

TW Gaze, which has been based in Diss since 1857 and also has an office in Wymondham, wants to develop the current livestock pens at its auction rooms site on Roydon Road – which have been featured on numerous antique television programmes.

If the planning application is accepted, work will start next year on a new saleroom and gallery space, cataloguing store, staff facilities and offices and an improved restaurant at the Diss site.

Elizabeth Talbot, director of TW Gaze, said: 'The outside pens where they used to sell livestock will be replaced with a new and modern building.

'We do not want to lose the cultural significance of the agricultural pens and we will try to reserve some of them. But the actual structure itself is impracticable. It will be similar to the buildings already on the site.'

Mrs Talbot said expanding the businesses is something the firm has wanted to do for a number of years and acquiring the freehold interest in the site over the summer has allowed it to do so.

She added: 'The status of the auction rooms has grown significantly over the last 20 years and it is not only a very important part of TW Gaze, but also of the local area. We wanted a big and nice space which would be flexible. It can be used as a gallery where people can view things and as a dedicated space for special occasions. We are hugely excited.'

Mrs Talbot has also been invited to be the auctioneer for the East Anglia's Children's Hospices (Each) inaugural fundraising gala dinner at the Natural History Museum in London.

The event, on November 30, will raise money for the charity's nook appeal – a £10m campaign to build a new hospice.

She said: 'I have had the privilege of conducting many significant charity auctions all over the country, but this will rank as the most exclusive.'