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Award winning Grade II Listed hotel and restaurant in ‘Thomas Hardy Country’ changes hands
A beautifully presented Grade II Listed hotel and restaurant, located in an area of Dorset, which has a historical connection with the 19th Century novelist, Thomas Hardy, has been sold through the Winchester Office of Christie + Co. Independent mortgage brokers, Christie Finance, arranged the funding for the purchasers.
Yalbury Cottage Hotel is situated in the hamlet of Little Bockhampton, close to the market town of Dorchester and approximately eight miles from the Dorset coastline. The area is known as ‘Thomas Hardy Country’, as the cottage where the 19th Century novelist was born is in nearby Higher Bockhampton and is now owned by the National Trust.
The hotel itself is a Grade II Listed building, which is understood to have been the home of the local shepherd and the keeper of the surrounding water meadows. The origins of the building date back several centuries, with a more recent bedroom wing, which was constructed in 1989, and comprises eight en suite letting bedrooms, a resident’s lounge, a 24-cover dining room and a self-contained two-bedroom owner’s flat, with an abundance of period features. The hotel backs onto open farmland and has the benefit of an easily maintained garden with an ornamental pond.
The business has successfully secured 5 AA stars for guest accommodation, 2 AA rosettes for culinary excellence and the recent accolade of the ‘Best Restaurant of the Year’ at the 2006 Dorset Food and Drink Awards. The Thomas Hardy connection to the local area generates significant tourist activity of approximately 20,000 people a year, which benefits the hotel and restaurant trade.
Ed Bellfield, from Christie + Co’s Winchester Office, who handled the sale, commented; “The vendor, Mark Collyer, purchased the hotel three years ago and has spent considerable sums on sympathetic improvements and general redecoration, both internally and externally. The new owner is Jamie Jones, who has previously worked for Four Seasons Hotels and has opened various hotels under this brand around the world. He and his wife have bought Yalbury Cottage to operate on their own as first time buyers.”
An asking price of £845,000 was sought for the freehold interest of Yalbury Cottage Hotel and it was sold for an undisclosed sum.
For further information, please contact Ed Bellfield in the Winchester office of Christie + Co on Tel: 01962 844455.
Our Ref: Win927
