PLANS look likely to be submitted to partially demolish the Studland hotel which became a favourite of children's writer Enid Blyton.

Historic Knoll House Hotel, which had been on the market for £15 million, was sold for an undisclosed sum last year.

Now, an ecological appraisal - normally a precursor to a planning application - has been lodged by Knoll House Ltd with Purbeck District Council.

This document lists development proposals at the site including the partial demolition of the existing hotel building; the erection of a new hotel extension to include 30 rooms, 38 apartments, 25 villas, leisure facilities and associated car parking.

Knoll House Hotel, where Enid would stay with her husband up to four times a year during the 1950s, was sold to a 'high net worth individual' , according to estate agents.

It is understood the existing owners decided to sell up so they could retire.

Enid Blyton would often stay at the hotel for weeks at a time. She'd write stories influenced by her own exploits in the surrounding countryside, which would go on to form the basis for her Famous Five novels.

Other notable guests of the hotel include Britain's wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill, writer Roald Dahl and Hollywood icon Vivien Leigh.

Kenneth and Pauline Ferguson bought the hotel in 1959 and it has stayed within the family since then.

Knoll House started life as a summer residence for the aristocratic Bankes family in the early 1900s, before being turned into a six-bedroom hotel by Chris and Poppy Smith in 1931.

It shut during the war and was used by troops preparing for the D-Day landings.

The hotel is set in 4.33 acres of woodland, with direct access to a three-mile stretch of beach. It is well known for its restaurant and leisure facilities, which include a nine-hole pitch and putt golf course and tennis courts.