Ston Easton Park on the market for £6m

Ston Easton Park hotel in Somerset has been brought to market for £6m after falling into administration last year.

The four-red-AA-star, 23-bedroom property was forced to close its doors last summer due to the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown.

With no income and the uncertainty of the future trading environment, it was concluded that it would no longer be viable for the business to continue. Director Andrew Davis decided to place the company into administration, with all 18 staff made redundant.

The Grade I-listed Georgian country house was constructed by John Hippisley-Coxe in 1769. The hotel is set in 28 acres of extensive landscaped gardens and grounds, designed and landscaped by Humphry Repton.

Ston Easton Park has a games room, billiard room, an orchard and tennis court nearby and Sorrels restaurant on the ground floor

The property is currently being used as a venue for the ITV series Sanditon, and featured in the BBC's production The Pursuit of Love.

The purchase would also include a Grade II-listed, three-bedroom gardener's cottage and a Grade II*-listed coach house.

Matthew Smith, partner in the Knight Franks hotel team, which is marketing the property, said: "Ston Easton Park represents a superb opportunity to acquire one of the finest hotel assets in the region. Although closed for trading, the hotel provides an incoming purchaser the opportunity to reposition the business as a luxury hotel and wedding venue, that also benefits from planning permission to further enhance the future business"

Peter and Christine Smedley converted the 18th-century mansion, formerly the family home of William Rees-Mogg, into a 22-bedroom hotel in 1982, before selling it for £4m to Andrew Davis' Von Essen Hotels in 2000.

The hotel was sold to entrepreneur and former Dragon's Den presenter James Caan in 2012 following the collapse of Von Essen, along with Sharrow Bay in Cumbria, both of which were returned to Davis a year later.