Chewton Glen's Peter Crome quits for return to Scots glen

Peter Crome is leaving his job as managing director of Chewton Glen country house hotel in Hampshire.

He is going to join Skibo Castle, the private members' club in the Scottish Highlands sold by entrepreneur Peter de Savary earlier this month to a group of members for an undisclosed sum.

Chewton Glen lost head chef Pierre Gavillard, after nearly a quarter of a century, only last week.

One-time Caterer Hotelier of the Year Crome has run the 59-bedroom Chewton Glen for the past nine years. He will leave later in the summer after his successor has been appointed. A date for his departure has not been decided.

Crome said that although he would be leaving Chewton Glen with a "heavy heart", he was excited to be returning to Scotland, his homeland.

Crome, who commutes to work on a weekly basis from his home in St Andrews, Fife, worked in Scotland in 1990 when he was general manager of the Old Course hotel in St Andrews.

He said: "It is with great regret that I am leaving Chewton Glen. I have loved being here and I never thought there would be anything that would capture my imagination as much."

He added: "I have wanted to go back to Scotland, and this is an opportunity that I just could not refuse."

Since selling Skibo Castle two weeks ago, De Savary, who was its founder and served as its chairman for 13 years, has turned his attention to the Manor House hotel on Dartmoor, Devon, which he bought from Le M‚ridien in December off a guide price of £7.5m.

The 86-bedroom Manor House will trade under that name until January. It will then close, to reopen next Easter as Bovey Castle.

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 19 - 25 June 2003