FOLEY House, Haverfordwest’s most important residential property, may be saved from falling into further disrepair, thanks to the Welsh Georgian Trust.

The preservation charity has this week announced it has been awarded a grant to undertake a project viability assessment on the Grade II-listed building.

The trust has been working with Pembrokeshire County Council (PCC) in order to restore the Georgian town house.

After being unoccupied since 2003, PCC placed the house and adjoining cottage on the market, but no buyer has been found.

The council has since approached the Welsh Georgian Trust to see whether it could develop a scheme to save the building.

Trustees believe there is a role that it can play in restoring the building and bringing it back into a sustainable use.

An Architectural Heritage Fund grant has been awarded and it is estimated that the viability assessment will take two months.

Historian and Haverfordwest Civic Society vice chairman, Mark Muller, hopes the deal will result in a viable solution for the 18th century mansion.

“The fact that a professional body sympathetic to the property and to John Nash might be involved is the best news for Foley House,” he said.

“Although it was an awkward inheritance for this administration, having been badly maintained for decades before they acquired it, every local authority administration appears to have made an art of doing nothing.

“Whilst most towns would want to have made a major feature out of having a Nash building as part of their townscape, neither the county nor town council has embraced it – the more recent debacle of the car park scandal having not helped.”

It was revealed last year that PCC spent £858,381 to build a 43-space car park in the grounds of the Goat Street building in 2011. It has remained unused since.

Foley House was built around 1792 and planned by renowned architect John Nash, who went on to design Buckingham palace.

The Georgian town house is famously where Lord Nelson received the Freedom of Haverfordwest in 1802.