The renovation of a Devon manor house built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel into a hotel and fine dining restaurant is moving forward at pace after it was bought for £1.35m.
The building's new owners are investing a substantial amount into Welbeck Manor and its nine-hole golf course, at Sparkwell on the edge of Plymouth, after acquiring the property and its 53 acres in 2021.
Already a new bar has been created on the ground floor, alongside a revamped dining room, new reception area and outdoors decking, which will have retractable roofing over a new gazebo.
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Upstairs, suites have been renovated and are already receiving bookings, as the restaurant becomes busy and the first wedding reservations are being accepted. The first nuptials will be in April and there are already 13 booked during the next two years, and birthday party bookings are arriving too.
The newly-formed Welbeck Manor and Golf Ltd company bought the 19th Century edifice and its grounds in April 2021, paying £1.35m for the hotel and course and investing several hundred thousand pounds into the ensuing renovation.
The company's directors explained that the building, which is not listed, was in need of a complete refurbishment, which went as far as needing to replace joists and addressing serious structural issues.
Welbeck Manor reopened with three suites available, that rose to 10 and another two are being created in the courtyard, and will be completed soon.
Internal refurbishment is ongoing but the downstairs is expected to be completed by summer 2022, with the courtyard rooms ready by late summer.
“We are in a position where we are open for business,” said one of the directors. “It’s foot to the pedal now.”
He added: “We have a lovely hotel offering nice food, but we want it to be a place where people can relax and enjoy themselves.”
The nine-hole Sparkwell Golf Course has been renamed Welbeck Manor Golf Course, a new greenkeeper has been appointed, greens have been improved and £100,000 of equipment bought.
“We want this to be the best nine-hole course in the South West,” said the directors. “We now have four times the amount of members we had when we bought the business. We are now at 125 and increasing by an average of 10 a month. In 12 months time we will be at over 200.”
There is also a drive to attract corporate golfing events and a link has been formed with American Golf, in Plymouth, to bring in young players looking to develop their games. But, longer term, there are ambitious plans to extend the business much further in the next five years.
New car parking will be created, with resurfacing work taking place in the next three to four months, and a plan to add electric charging points. In addition to the completion of outdoor seating and a gazebo, an outside bar could be added near the crochet lawn.
A tumbledown barn is being viewed as having potential for renovation. The directors said it already has planning consent for five bedrooms, but it could be adapted for events and into holiday lodges.
And there is already planning permission for additional accommodation. The company's directors said that consent is for an extension, but it is more likely new permission will be sought to create lodges, possibly in a Scandinavian style, with hot tubs.
“With 12 rooms it’s going to be tight,” a director said. “But to get to 20 rooms we will have the viability to continue to invest and improve and add more facilities.”
There is also a vision to improve the ecology of the site, planting flowers and possibly even bee hives, and the green ambition extends to adding solar assisted heat pumps. And the ambitions stretch to the kitchen where chef Mauricio Zambrano has brought his experience from working in New York, the Galapagos Islands and, closer to Sparkwell, the Boringdon Hall and Burgh Island hotels.
“We are looking toward obtaining rosettes,” said the hotel directors, adding that a new manager will be arriving from a “major corporate” and there will be a drive to train young chefs.
There are 10 staff at the hotel at the moment, and another three are being sought now, and the directors said: “We will invest in the hotel and create employment.” And the hotel’s owners are keen for residents of the neighbouring Sparkwell village to use the facilities too, even if just for a pint or snack or afternoon tea, with a director saying: “We want people to come here and enjoy it.”
Welbeck Manor Hotel and its golf course went on the market as a going concern at the end of 2020 having been owned by the same family for about 30 years. The business sits in about 55 acres of parkland on the fringe of Dartmoor. Engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who designed the Royal Albert rail bridge across the nearby Tamar, built the manor in 1847. Its golf course was created in 1993.
