Exciting futures - the Well House Manor project
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2005-11-30 08:25:20 - Graham Ellis"If you were to start a new business in the county (Wiltshire), what would it be and why?". The question was asked of me yesterday evening by the reporter from the local newspaper who was interviewing me for a piece that's probably published on Friday ...
I paused.
We are actually going to be launching a new venture next year to compliment the training courses, and I rather too Dave aback by my answer ...
We love Melksham. We moved here at the tail end of 1999 and we ran course at our training centre from late the following summer. Plenty of good B&Bs and hotels, which proved a real blessing as the majority of our customer base doesn't commute, but rather stays overnight in the area. But times, they are a'changing. Springfield next door to us has closed down and the owners now operate a smaller establishment further away. The Town House, Beechfield and Bowden House are all (or have very recently) been up for sale. Others have changed hands, and new managers / owners are concentrating on other parts of their businesses such as food and drinks. Sandridge and the Regency have closed down, and some of the remaining B&Bs that I haven't mentioned aren't taking guests all the time like they used to as their owner's situations change. All of which leads us, in looking forward to 2006, 2007 and 2008, to see a shortage of good places to stay looming up.
By next summer, we'll be offering accommodation for the business visitor to Melksham. While courses are on, the majority of rooms will be set aside for our trainees, but we will also have good or excellent availability for people who are working for a few days (or longer) in white collar roles at Knorr Bremse, at "The Avon", G Plan, the National Trust and the divisional Police HQ amongst others. Many of our trainees are impressed by Wiltshire and say that they must return with their partner to do the tourist thing; all our rooms will be double or twin bedded, and at weekends we'll be proving accommodation for the discerning tourist to the area - a quiet base away from home just 12 miles from Bath, close to Lacock, Corsham, Avebury and within striking distance of Stonehenge and Salisbury.
"You read about it first on the Horse's Mouth!". This is the first public statement on the topic ... and I'll come back here and tell you more of the exciting project as it progresses. Truth be told, it's been quite hard to restrain myself for the past few weeks as we've made tentative enquiries and started lining up our ducks. But they are - more or less - in line now with location identified and agreed in principle, business plan in place, and the training centre littered with floor plans and the rest whenever there's no delegates around.