Romsey
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White Horse re-opens
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| Christopher Bignal cuts a ribbon to open the refurbished White Horse. He and Maureen Cook (centre) are great grandchildren of James Bignal, a former licencee of the property. On the left is Peter Bartlett, general manager T9007D |
ANNOUNCED by Town Crier Terry Hamer and applauded by a crowd of around a hundred, Romsey's White Horse Hotel galloped back into business on Monday.
The man with the honour of cutting the ribbon to mark the occasion was retired bank manager Christopher Bignal, whose great great grandfather James Bignal was the landlord more than 100 years ago.
As he looked at the way the hotel's historic timbers had been blended with 21st century state of the art décor and fittings, he said: "From what I have seen so far, I think it is terrific - and something my ancestors would be looking down on from up there with great pleasure."
With him and equally impressed was Maureen Cook, Christopher Bigall's great grand daughter. Maureen recalled trips to the hotel in the 1950s with her grandmother Lilian Pitman, who lived at the hotel during her childhood and used to watch horse-drawn carriages go to and from the courtyard.
The White Horse was bought out of receivership in December 2006 by brothers Philip and Jonathan Nuttall and they immediately embarked on bringing five-star hospitality into the town centre in creating their Silks Hotels business.
"We weren't aware of how poor a state it was in and we have had to bring in completely new mechanics and electricity that we have virtually had new build in a medieval building.
"But now the work has been done, we are very pleased with the quality and I am extremely confident it will be successful," said Mr Philip Nuttall.
The key role in designing all the décor and choosing and designing the carpets and fabric has been played by Jonathan Nuttall's wife Amanda and she said: "It has been a case of trying to have simplicity while at the same time bringing out the traditional features."
She has also included some aspects which will never be seen or used elsewhere, including a specially made stair carpet with an oak leaf trellis pattern.
Claire has also commissioned paintings by local artists Tony Mercier and Claire Kitcher.
When the hotel reopened, head chef Matthew Gardner and his staff proved their ability to swing into action and deal with a rush of short notice bookings and arrivals in what turned out to be an extremely busy day.
The housekeeping staff, some of whom had worked through the night to make sure everything was ready had their hands full too, with a number of guests booked into some of the 26 bedrooms opened so far.
All of those rooms are named after famous racehorses.
9:53am Tuesday 24th June 2008
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