Welcome to the new look quarterly Beales News! March 2023!

Posted on 01 March, 2023 by Andrew Beale

The big event this winter was the opening of phase one The Bell Hotel in Saxmundham, Suffolk on 12^th December.

A huge amount of work had been done to convert this 1842 hotel into a luxury boutique property fit for the 21^st century, within easy reach of all the sights of the glorious Suffolk coast.

We opened with three beautiful food and drink areas – The Heath Restaurant, The River Bar and The Coast Lounge.

Also brand new guest WCs, disabled access for the very first time in its history, and a bespoke kitchen and wash up area.

Upstairs we have created seven luxury bedrooms including accessible rooms, family suites, and a range of different sizes.

With architecture by Brooks Architects in Leiston, interior design by Cotton Tree Interiors in Saxmundham, and marketing by The Bridge in Woodbridge, we have deliberately gone local for this lovely hotel.

Phase two starts shortly, and will add three more luxury bedrooms, more dining space in The Coach Room, a lift to the first floor, a small reception area, and an upgraded terrace outside.

Have a look at https://thebellhotelsaxmundham.co.uk/ for more details, special events, offers and photos.

Ashley Beale, General Manager and Matthew Croxford, Deputy General Manager would be delighted to welcome you to The Bell!

Have a look at https://thebellhotelsaxmundham.co.uk/ for more details, special events, offers and photos.

Ashley Beale, General Manager and Matthew Croxford, Deputy General Manager would be delighted to welcome you to The Bell!

energy efficient LED lighting in all the public areas, the conversion of the last single bedded room into a gorgeous cosy double room (60), and a multitude of small improvements to every area of the hotel.

Exciting plans to come include a new front lounge scheme, a new reception area scheme, a revamp of the Mary Beale Restaurant and Terrace Bar, new schemes for many bedrooms and bathrooms and an improved front car park.

Outside in The Beale Arboretum, we have planted dozens of new trees, including more Giant Redwoods to add to our burgeoning collection, and many donated specimen trees from Kew Gardens. The winter weather has been cold and dry, and we really need a wet month or two for the grounds to recover from the drought of last y

Special events coming up at West Lodge Park include more album evenings with our Director of Music Paul Jaffa, a super clarinet concert dinner with Boyan Ivanov and Lysianne Chen on 24^th March,

and arboretum tours with myself Andrew Beale from 4^th April onwards through the season.

Bedrooms, restaurant tables, special events etc are all easily bookable online on https://www.westlodgepark.co.uk/

Chris Hall, General Manager and Graeme Hammond, Deputy General Manager would be delighted to welcome you back to West Lodge Park along with their 100+ team!

Congratulations to our recent Long Service award winners including Estates Manager Steve Hand (25 Years), Housekeeper Tony Balaam (20 years), and Deputy Estates Manager Roy Gellard (5 years).

Congratulations too to our Simply the Best star members of the team, including Kitchen assistant Edouard Sismanoglu in January,

Chef Russell Galpin in December, Sous Chef Lee Goodhall in October and Restaurant Manager James Savery in September

And sales are up over 8% at West Lodge Park compared to the previous year, a good result considering the economic headwinds we are trading in, the cost of living crisis impacting on our guests and staff and with electricity costing us £1000 per day at West Lodge Park alone……

After many years we have parted ways with Handelsbanken for our banking arrangements and have moved to The Co Op bank, and we look forward to an excellent relationship with them over the years to come.

In 1995, my grandfather, father and I planted 50 hornbeam trees at WLP to commemorate 50 years of the Beale family at the hotel, and to celebrate our success in gaining the National Collection status for our collection of hornbeams (Carpinus betulus)

We built ironwork to support the trees, and strung straining wires between the posts, tying the branches together to create a pleached hornbeam hedge.

We always knew that one day the hedge would be strong enough to support itself, and that day is today, some 28 years later, as we are taking down the ironwork and wires at last.

Paolo and Dominic are taking out all the ironwork using a powerful petrol angle grinder (pic), and for the first time in those 28 years the magnificent hedge will be self-supporting.