A long-standing hotel which was taken over just under a year ago is due to close its doors this weekend with the loss of 14 jobs.

The Cornwallis Country House Hotel at Brome, near Eye, has been put on the market with a guide price of £995,000.

Manager of the hotel, Emma Dall, said that staff had been told of the decision by owners Bespoke Hotels three weeks ago, and that while all 14 had been made redundant, with the hotel's help all but one had found alternative employment.

'They've all taken it very well, very positively,' she said. 'The staff have stayed until the end, we've contacted the guests and found other accommodation for the majority of them so it's ending on a positive.'

The Cornwallis, which will close after check-in on Sunday morning, sits in 17 acres and was taken over from Oxford Inns in November last year.

The Tudor building has now been placed on the market with Diss-based twgaze.

Licenced trade consultant Alan Corwcrest said: 'I have known the Cornwallis for over 30 years, since it was the Oaksmere Hotel. Currently traded under management, the owners have now decided that the business does not fit their operational model.

'With 16 en-suite bedrooms in the main building and coach house, degrees of scale dictate that management, with its incumbent overheads, is possibly not the best way forward.

'I believe that experienced entrepreneurial hoteliers, possibly a family, would succeed. Alternatively a five-star restaurant with rooms could be attractive.'

The building also includes a Tudor bar, restaurant, conservatory and breakfast rooms, and the site has topiary gardens and a patio, a beer garden, meadows and a paddock. It is licenced for civil ceremonies and partnerships.