Crathorne Hall hotel unveils £4m restoration one year on from fire

01 October 2015 by Katey Pigden

Crathorne Hall hotel in Yarm, North Yorkshire, has unveiled its £4m restoration work exactly one year on from the fire that severely damaged the east wing.

The relaunch of the four-red-AA-star hotel, which is owned and operated by Hand Picked Hotels, marks a year of intensive rebuilding and refurbishment work after a fire broke out in the roof of the east wing. All guests and staff were evacuated safely and around 100 firefighters took more than eight hours to bring the blaze under control.

The hotel remained closed for over a month and reopened with 20 of its 37 bedrooms in use. The east wing, which is away from the historic main house, remained closed until now.

Julia Hands, chairman and chief executive of Hand Picked Hotels, and Lord Crathorne, whose family owned the Edwardian country house for more than 70 years, joined general manager Peter Llewellyn and the team to celebrate the restoration.

Hands said: "The restoration of Crathorne Hall is magnificent and is the result of an excellent team effort by everyone involved at the hotel. We remain indebted to the fire services for saving an important part of the history and landscape of this part of North Yorkshire and are very proud that the hotel takes its place once more as a wonderful place to meet and to stay."

In consultation with English Heritage and Hambleton District Council's planning and conservation officer, a team of specialist craftsmen worked on refurbishing and restoring grand architectural features.

They uncovered an archway in the county suite corridor, which has been restored, and an old stove in the former nursery, which has also been preserved and incorporated as a feature.

Ken Arkley, commercial director of Hand Picked Hotels, told The Caterer: "Every cloud has a silver lining. The fire was devastating but it gave us an opportunity to change layouts and we discovered some amazing features which have now become part of the hotel. We had to completely rebuild our kitchen which was also destroyed in the fire.