Rigby expands Eden Hotel Collection with Devon acquisition
LEADING Midland entrepreneur and Coventry Airport owner Sir Peter Rigby has expanded his hotel group with the acquisition of a venue in Devon.
His luxury boutique operator Eden Hotel Collection has taken on the 64-bedroom Bovey Castle estate in the heart of Dartmoor National Park in an undisclosed deal.
It is now planning a £2m investment in the country house estate, which today includes an 18-hole championship golf course, spa, country lodges and an outdoor pursuits centre.
The deal follows hard on the heels of an announcement in April of the company’s £13.5m planned investment in the 35-bedroom Tides Reach Hotel in Salcombe, South Devon. That site will be redeveloped to create a 50-bedroom luxury beachfront hotel and spa.
Commenting on the Bovey Castle deal, Eden Hotel Collection’s Managing Director Mark Chambers said: “Bovey Castle is a key acquisition for the group and will add to our existing properties in Somerset, Kingsbridge and now Salcombe. It establishes us as a major force in the hotel and tourism sector across the region.
“Restoring this iconic hotel and its estate is an exciting project for our team. This famous property has a national and international reputation for excellence and we are very much looking forward to cementing its place as the jewel in the crown of the leisure industry in the South West.
“We are delighted to expand further into the South West, where our parent company, The Rigby Group, already has strong business links through its ownership of Exeter Airport, British International Helicopters (BIH) and SCC the international technology company.”
In addition to Tides Reach and Bovey Castle, Stratford-upon-Avon-based Eden Hotel Collection has seven luxury hotels and spas: Buckland Tout-Saints Hotel, Devon; The Mount Somerset Hotel and Spa, Somerset; The Kings Hotel, Chipping Campden; The Arden Hotel, Stratford-upon-Avon; Brockencote Hall Hotel, Worcestershire; The Greenway Hotel and Spa, Cheltenham; and Mallory Court, Leamington Spa.
The origins of Bovey Castle date back to 1890, when William Henry Smith, founder of stationer WH Smith and later to become Viscount Hambleden, purchased 5,000 acres of land from the Earl of Devon for £103,000, who had owned the estate for the previous five centuries.
His son, Frederick, built North Bovey Manor House in a lavish neo-Elizabethan style as one of the family’s numerous country retreats. The interior boasted a Jacobean style staircase, plaster ceilings, an oak panelled dining room, banqueting hall with minstrel’s gallery, open fireplace with a carved stone chimney and an Adam drawing room.
During the First World War, the Manor House became a convalescent home for officers and as a military hospital when war broke out again in 1939.
Lord Hambleden died in June 1928. His estate, consisting largely of the entire ordinary shareholding of WH Smith and his properties, were valued at £3.5m but his family was liable for death duty of £1m. North Bovey Manor House and its estate were almost immediately put on the market to pay the death duty, which was eventually auctioned to the Great Western Railway for conversion to a golfing hotel, reputedly for just £15,000.
The hotel and golf course opened in 1930 and the hotel entertained many celebrities, including Joachim von Ribbentrop, Hitler’s ambassador, who booked a whole floor for himself, his wife and a large number of servants and guards. He allegedly intended to acquire the manor house after England had been defeated.
Another 17 bedrooms, a cocktail bar, dining room and squash and badminton courts were added between 1935-1936.
From 1946 to 1983, it was returned to the Great Western Railway and re-opened as a hotel. It then changed owners again in 1991 when considerable expansion took place and the golf course became a top priority.
The Manor House became Bovey Castle in 2003 and continued to expand with the addition of the 22 lodges, spa and pool. It underwent further refurbishment in 2008.
