gissing hall
Norfolk hotel and wedding venue is put up for sale
By ADAM GRETTON
Thursday, August 18, 2011
6:30 AM
The future of a south Norfolk hotel and wedding venue has been cast into doubt after it was put up for sale on the eve of being featured on a prime time television programme.
Gissing Hall, near Diss, will star in the new series of Country House Rescue, which will be shown on Channel 4 tonight. The television programme sends business guru Ruth Watson to stately homes to advise owners on ways to diversify and increase turnover.
However, it emerged yesterday that the 19th century country mansion has been placed on the market with a £1.5m price tag by its owners William and Ann Brennan.
The couple bought Gissing Hall 25 years ago as a family home, but escalating costs forced them to open it up as a hotel to help pay the bills.
In tonight’s Country House Rescue episode the owners are encouraged to wind-down the hotel operation and focus more on the wedding side of the business.
Mr Brennan said they had taken the advice of Ruth Watson, but it had been 18 months since the Channel 4 show had been filmed and the couple had started to think about retirement. He added that all bookings will be honoured.
“We are trying to sell. Ruth Watson advised us that it was a hopeless location for a hotel and that we concentrate on the weddings. We are almost 70 and we are getting on. A year and a half ago we had plenty of enthusiasm, but recently it has got more difficult,” he said.
Mr and Mrs Brennan had submitted a planning application to South Norfolk Council to return the hotel and wedding venue to a private home, which has been placed on hold now that the building is up for sale.
The listed 20-bedroom mansion in Upper Street, Gissing, is currently being marketed by Chesterton Humberts, which includes its five acre gardens and separate owner’s house. The couple completed a refurbishment of some of the rooms and bridal suite and hired a new general manager on the recommendation of Ruth Watson.
Mr Brennan added that they had been sent a preview copy of the show, which will be aired at 8pm on Channel 4.
“It is very good and we come across seriously wet, but we were one of the few people to be featured on Country House Rescue who did what we were told to do.”
“If it gets enough of a push from the show, we may be able to keep going. We want to retire really and we hope to retire with a successful business running profitably without much input from us, but it is very difficult to do that and regretfully, we will probably be moving on,” he said.
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3 comments
I had a wedding there in the spring which was not as good as it could have been .. by far !The food was poor & the service not good .The manager that they hired was super & installed confidence but left after 6 weeks & the agreemants made with him re prices were not honoured the owner did not want to discuss anything with me was very rude to me. told me i was wasting his time wanting to visit ,negoiate & discuss the arrangments On pre wedding arrangemant telephone conversations hung up on me 3 times & a week before the wedding told me not to visit but just turn up on the day & 'get it over with ' The venue is lovely & quriky & but the service & food was just not good the wedding breakfast left much to be desired & the evening buffet cheese board was slices of chedder & a slab of blue cheese ! Always happy to pay for quality food & service but this was not what was sold to us . I totally agree with Ruth Watson this place has so much potential but is DESPERATE for the right manager. I am pleased that they have chosen to retire so that they can enjoy their life & do not have work in a businees that they obviously didnt like
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JS
Friday, August 19, 2011
My husband and I got married here last June and we were totally blown away by the venue and the staff. The staff are absolutely amazing and could not do enough for us from the moment we met them to us going back for our first wedding anniversary this year. Granted, when we first viewed the venue there were a few areas for improvement but they put in a lot of hard work and before our wedding took place lots of improvements had been made to make the venue every bride's dream! I would recommend this venue to anyone getting married, without hesitation. Gissing has a lovely personal feel and they are very flexible and open to ideas so that you don't feel railroaded into having something you don't want like other hotels in the area. Gissing Hall was my perfect wedding venue and I really hope Gissing continues as a hotel, so that other brides can have their dream wedding too. I would be very sad to see it all end.
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Sarah Holloway
Friday, August 19, 2011
My cousin had her wedding there around a month ago. Lovely building with lots of character, but lots of TLC and £££ needed to get it up to standards with other wedding venues in the area.
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SpixQuim
Thursday, August 18, 2011