Well House Manor - the history of the hotel
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2010-09-20 06:11:12 - Graham Ellis
Well House Manor was built in 1906, as a home, on a 3/4 acre plot on what was then the outskirts of a much smaller Melksham. Originally, the staircase lead up from the right of the entrance door, and we believe that the ceiling was much higher, there being no room above.Around 1920, the staircase was moved, the tiled floor in the entrance hallway was installed, and the extra room put in above. And over the years, various extensions were added.
For about 30 years in the middle / late 20th Century, Well House Manor functioned as a Vet's - writing in 2010, we still get people coming in who remember it as that. The small wooden building beside the staff entrance is still known as "The Waiting Room", and the big shed out the back is "The Tack Room". The deeds on the property, to this day, have a covenant that forbids the owner to run a veterinary business from the property; we believe that's because the vet sold to move elsewhere within the town and wanted to prevent a competitive operation being set up in his old place.
After the vet's, Mr and Mrs Bailey operated a greetings card business from the property; over time, they separated and Mrs Bailey remained in the property. The greetings card business was replaced by a bed and breakfast that Mrs Bailey ran under the name "The Old Manor". By this time, the front of the property was protected by an eight foot high wall, with very limited vehicle space inside and a blind exit for vehicles pulling out. The high wall also gave rise to a seclusion which encouraged people who were looking for such seclusion onto the property, even if they were not resident or visiting.
Over the years, with the growth of Melksham, the property has moved from being on the edge of town to a place that's very much within the town - and the 3/4 of an acre is one of the few blocks of land around that's not been built on. Looking to move on, the owners were encouraged to sell the property to a retirement home company, who wanted to build some 23 accommodation units on the site. Plans were drawn up, planning applications made, and we understand that the officers of the planning department recommended acceptance. However, the application was rejected by councilors after pressure from the surrounding properties who were unhappy about a multistory building right up to their fences, and it became clear to the owner / retirement flat company that further applications were unlikely to succeed.
We opened a training centre elsewhere in Melksham in 2000, and very quickly built a business for which guests stayed at various places and came to us each day. "The Old Manor" was one of these, but from 2000 to 2005 it became more run down (naturally, the previous owner was not investing in long term maintenance on a property she was planning to have demolished). By 2005, the number of places for delegates to stay was dropping, and places like "The Old Manor" were no longer offering what our delegates needed - their needs had grown to require credit card payment, internet access, late check ins, desk space, many channel TVs, en suite, etc - and we faced an issue with where to recommend, and there was a danger of our courses becoming memorable for inappropriate overnight accommodation.
So - in 2006 - we completed the purchase of "The Old Manor", complete with planning approval supported by our neighbors (who we kept fully informed) to run it as a hotel. From 1st June 2006 when we got vacant possession through to mid October, we undertook a major refit and refurbishment, and we opened for delegates ... with the place re-plaster, rewired, re-plumbed, and otherwise redesigned and re-engineered. All rooms are now en-suite, fitted with power savers, spacious, etc. Car parking and access issues have been resolved, and the fit-out is with materials which we expect to have a long life expectancy rather than being cheap for a short term project. We re-christened the building "Well House Manor" as a combination of the Well House name and The Old Manor.Other business visitors to Melksham also need the sort of facilities and place to stay that our delegates are looking for, and we were soon accepting bookings for people working at Bowerhill and other offices in the town. And it turns out that we're also ideal for people visiting family in town, where the family is short of space. Guests stay with us when they're in Melksham to attend a wedding, or simply if they're touring the area.
Our main business remains training courses in open source programming languages - for which we have two fully equipped training rooms and an extensive library - but we're also providing significant accommodation and have a lot of returning regular hotel guests at Well House Manor.
As we're not a mainstream hotel, we don't appear in many of the listings - we simply don't fit the standard categories. Rooms are designed to 5 star quality (drop in and see if you like!) but we lack services such as a bar and night porter which a five star rating requires; that's not an issue as our niche clientele simply doesn't want, need or use such services and to provide them would raise the cost of a stay with us for no purpose. Try us. If we're what you need, you'll keep coming back as many do.