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We can offer a room, but we can't operate on a dog

Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2006-06-05 05:38:29 - Graham Ellis

Our first weekend, probably of many, working on "Well House Manor". The previous owner finally completed her move out on Thursday, 1st June, and we had vacant possession from that afternoon. We wish her all the very best for the future, and appreciate her gestures such as the flowers left to wish us all the best. We also very much appreciate the paperwork that goes with the place.

What gems have we discovered from the new papers? More about the issues of neighbouring trees, planning applications for the conservatory and extra bedrooms, and also for the forbidding, view-blocking wall that fronts the main road (and goes under our planning application. That the place was formerly called "Linken" - which I'm pretty sure came from the first three letters of each of the owner's forenames, and that when sold in the late '70s by the vet who used to practise there, he added a stipulation to the sale that it should not be used as a veterinary practise by the new owners. I suspect that nothing was further from their thoughts; it's certainly not part of our thoughts, which makes the question of whether or not we would be bound by the condition to be pretty academic.


Well House Manor, pictured here just after we took over. A year or two back, plans were to knock the place down and build some 20+ housing units on the site. So although the gardens were being kept nice, there has been little investment in recent years in them, and they're looking tired and a bit scraggy ... slipping paving stones, rock plants growing out of crevices, and so on. Most of the trees are fine but in need of a little trimming back - several of the neighbours are less than happy with their effect and putting ourselves into their shoes, I quite get their point. And a tiny proportion of the trees are beyond their useful life or in the way of access off the road to the level required by the county (and endorsed by ourselves) to a level that's safe and appropriate for a small hotel.


Inside, the decor is dated too. Much was redone in 1979 and had become life expired. A major clean down and redecorate as a minimum is called for. I wondered whether or not I should post pictures here - they're hardly encouraging for future guests at the hotel but for history's sake, here are a couple to give you an idea. It seems incredible that this room, this bed was in use by paying guests up to the May Bank Holiday, 2006 - that's just a week ago. And our last delegate (under old managements) stayed just 3 weeks ago.


There's a huge potential here - perhaps you can already envisage, as we can, the use of this room pictured as the breakfast / dining room? It looks out over the back / onto a patio and will seat all of our guests comfortably. It's a bit of a shell at the moment, but I'll come back to here in months following and post update pictures.


Some 9 of us were working at Well House Manor this weekend ... and the place is so big we could easily have accommodated the same number more again. Wallpaper, carpets, and fitted cupboards have been stripped from six bedrooms. Kitchen and Utility Room have been partly stripped back, and some stud walls / coverings removed or peeled back to give us further insight into what needs to be done. In many areas, there's encouraging news that the scale of works may not be anything like as great as was expected, and seeing thing under the surface and on the ground without the landlady hovering has been enlightening. Well - actually the landlady HAS been hovering, but that's Lisa now ;-)