Hotel and wedding venue between Northampton and Wellingborough damaged by blaze overnight

UPDATED: A blaze has badly damaged part of the Aviator Hotel between Wellingborough and Northampton overnight.

Up to 40 firefighters took more than seven hours to put out a fire at the popular wedding and conference venue, at Sywell Aerodrome, just before midnight on Thursday (March 3).

Hotel guests were evacuated while crews from Northampton, Moulton, Wellingborough, Corby and Earls Barton tackled the fire.

A spokesman for Northamptonshire Fire & Rescue confirmed nobody was injured while a crew remained in attendance and Wellingborough Road remained shut between Holcot Lane and Glebe Road until around 8am on Friday.

Hotel owner Michael Bletsoe-Brown later confirmed: "The fire was contained to the outer edge of the building and all residents staying were evacuated safely and we were able to relocate them to other hotels locally.

"The damage was limited to a small area of the building on the top floor and we hope to have all bedrooms back online as soon as possible.

"The Aviator bar and restaurant were unaffected and will be open as normal. The hotel building and the majority of the bedrooms are still available as normal"

The Aviator is a unique hotel with 59 bedrooms set in a historic 1930s Art Deco building which was once a clubhouse and officers' mess, located on the edge of the airfield.

It also features a collection of original Sywell memorabilia from early aviation days.

Fire investigators will be on site to day to carry out inspections in a bid to identify a possible cause.