Bovey Castle
| Bovey Castle | |
|---|---|
 | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Type | English country house |
| Architectural style | Neo-Jacobean |
| Location | Moretonhampstead, Devon, England |
| Coordinates | 50°38′46″N 3°47′44″W / 50.646092°N 3.795516°W |
| Completed | 1907 |
| Client | Frederick Smith |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | Detmar Blow |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
| Official name | Manor House Hotel, including terraces immediately to south-east |
| Designated | 16 January 1981 |
| Reference no. | 1097161 |
Bovey Castle, formerly the Manor House Hotel, is a large early 20th-century mansion on the edge of Dartmoor National Park, near Moretonhampstead, Devon, England. It is a Grade II* listed building[1] and is now a hotel with 59 individually designed bedrooms in the hotel and 22 three-storey country lodges nearby.[2]
History
Construction
The house started construction in 1907 to designs by Detmar Blow,[3] for Frederick Smith (the son and heir of the Conservative politician and stationery magnate William Henry Smith, Lord Hambleden). The architect was WE Mills of Oxford, whilst local contractors undertook the actual building.[4]
The building is built of granite quarried within the wider estate, with dressings of stone from Darley Dale in Derbyshire.[4] Over 300 people worked on the construction of the building, and the completion was celebrated with a grand dinner for them in March 1908.[4]
Wartime service
In 1917, due to World War I, the manor house was opened for the use of wounded soldiers.[5]
Conversion to a hotel
Following the death of Lord Hambleden, there were significant death duties to be paid,[6] and the estate was sold off by lots at auction in 1928, along with over 5,000 acres of land and the entire village of North Bovey.[7] The following year, it was announced that the main manor house and 200 acres of land had been sold to the Great Western Railway for conversion into a hotel.[8][9][10] The provision of activities including fishing, croquet, and the possibility of the construction of a golf course on site were emphasised from the announcement.[11]
The hotel opened in 1929 as the "Manor House Hotel".[12] The following year, on Whitsun 1930, the new 18-hole golf course opened at the hotel,[13][14] designed by John Frederick Abercromby.[15][16] The following year, a group of noted golf professionals played at the Manor House Hotel course, at the invitation of Viscount Churchill, chairman of the Great Western Railway.[17]
It became part of the British Transport Hotels portfolio. In 1948 it was taken over by the British Transport Commission.
Expansion and name change
Expanded under new ownership in the 1990s, the castle was purchased and refurbished by the entrepreneur Peter de Savary in 2003 and renamed 'Bovey Castle'.
In 2006 de Savary sold Bovey Castle to Hilwood Resorts. In 2014 it was sold to The Rigby Group plc as part of their Eden Hotel Collection.[6]
The castle was used as the venue for the wedding of diver Tom Daley and his husband, Dustin Lance Black, in May 2017.[18]
Architecture
The main building was built in 1907 in Jacobean style, with a Great Hall into which a floor was inserted in the 1980s. The interior is of high quality, with panelled rooms and elaborately carved features. Extensions were built in the 1930s.[1] The garden front is set above terraces overlooking a lake and the River Bovey.
References
- ^ a b "Bovey Castle". britishlistedbuildings.co.uk. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
- ^ "Bovey Castle - Luxury English Castle Hotel in Dartmoor National Park, Devon". www.celticcastles.com. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
- ^ "MANOR HOUSE HOTEL INCLUDING TERRACES IMMEDIATELY TO SOUTH EAST". Historic England.
- ^ a b c "North Bovey Manor House". The East & South Devon Advertiser. 28 March 1908.
- ^ "North Bovey". Western Times. 11 May 1917.
- ^ a b Tift, Duncan (23 June 2014). "Rigby expands Eden Hotel Collection with Devon acquisition". The Business Desk.
- ^ "North Bovey Manor: Sale of Lord Hambleden's Estate". Western Times. 9 November 1928.
- ^ "North Bovey Manor: Residence of late peer to become an hotel". Western Morning News. 7 March 1929.
- ^ "Another G.W.R. Hotel". Cornishman. 11 April 1929.
- ^ "Hotel on edge of Dartmoor". Dundee Evening Telegraph. 9 April 1929.
- ^ "Veritable sun-trap on Dartmoor: New G.W.R. luxury hotel of the West". Langport & Somerton Herald. 13 April 1929.
- ^ "Manor House Hotel". Illustrated London News. 15 June 1929.
- ^ "Dartmoor Golf - Sporting course at G.W.R. Luxury Hotel". Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette. 7 June 1930.
- ^ "New Gold Course - Railway Enterprise at Moretonhampstead". Western Morning News. 6 June 1930.
- ^ "JF Abercromby". Evalu18. 20 May 2019.
- ^ Cornish, Geoffrey S (1987). The Golf Course. New York: Rutledge Press. p. 162. ISBN 9780831739430.
- ^ "Golf - Professionals in Devon". Western Morning News. 28 April 1931.
- ^ "Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black marry at Devon hotel". BBC News. 6 May 2017. Archived from the original on 1 May 2018. Retrieved 7 May 2017.