A little history.....
Hazelwood is an early Victorian house and was the home of the Peek
family (of Peek-Frean biscuit fame) for generations.
The Peeks were
originally tea planters and merchants who later amalgamated with the
Freans to become famous for tea and bicuits.
The House started as a small two gabled house with a thatch roof and as the fortunes of the family grew so did the house. Extra wings were added at either end of the original. The distinctive walls that run beside the driveway were built by one of the Peek family with the help of prisoners from the Crimean war.
The Peeks were a very community minded family and in its pre-war hey-day the house was a hub of a 1000 acre estate with four farms; a chapel and a schoolroom for children living on the estate. They even had their own Mausoleum (strictly for family!) as well as a separate burial ground for staff. Those pre-war years saw dances in the drawing room and boxing day meets outside the front door. The beautiful woodlined stables housed hunters and no less than nine gardeners were employed to keep the gardens. The children had their own nursery overlooking the valley with views of the tranquil river running below. In fact, room 4 still has the original wallpaper as we simply couldn't bear to rip it off! Servants lived on the top floor and estate workers came through the back door to the office (still our office!) behind the kitchen to collect their weekly pay.
Post war years saw the decline of this style of living. There were fewer staff both inside and out; the chapel became a squash court and the schoolroom a billiard room. Obviously it became harder to keep up with the extensive gardens, driveways and buildings and soon the lifestyle that had so fitted the place was no longer possible.
Finally in around 1986 the son who was to inherit the estate decided to put Hazelwood on the market. Property developers bought it and sold off the adjoining farms and land leaving 67 acres, the heart of the estate, which they planned to split into 27 small lots and sell off for separate development. It was at this point, in 1988, that the present owners came across it after wondering whether they could afford to buy the small dwelling by the river - the boathouse. From discovering that the entire estate was in fact for sale, they were suddenly struck by the feeling of the place and decided to look around the main house. They felt that there was a sense of sadness in the air that this fabulous house was about to be broken up. By chance as they were leaving, the estate agent arrived and so during a conversation with him Gillian proposed a question and asked him how much someone would need to buy the place. He replied "About £1,250,000 should do it!". Then Gillian asked, to the amazement of the others, whether he knew anyone who could loan them that kind of money. His response was "Well yes, as a matter of fact I do".
A chain of events followed that defies all rational thinking. Funding was made available to them, and within three months the whole property was handed over into their care. There was little idea as to what the true purpose of the place was, but as a start they painted a rough B&B sign and placed it out on the road. Within hours a family drove in, followed by a group of 43 people for five days full-board! The place was ill-equipped to cater for them, and no-one had any real experience but with a little bit of ingenuity, humour and a fair amount of luck, they had some happy customers and from there a sort of pattern began to unfold.
Almost 20 years on the place is a fully lisenced B&B Guesthouse, Restaurant, Wedding, Concert, Workshop and Exhibition Venue and has many followers keeping the spirit of this remarkable place alive and kicking!