Week St. Mary Village - Village History

Lambley Park

Lambley Park was built around 1894 and had been a landmark of the village for as long as anyone alive could remember. So it was with sadness that such a fine imposing building should suffer a disastrous fire on 6th April 2004. Lambley Park Country House Hotel was almost totally destroyed. Almost 20 months later very little has changed, except for demolition and site clearance in preparation for a rebuilding project.

The hotel was destroyed by a fire accidentally started by a firm of decorators during refurbishment, one month prior to re-opening with upgraded accommodation. The fire started under the flat roof above one of the bays on the first floor - apparently an area behind the eaves (where paint was being stripped with hot air guns) must have become overheated and some four hours after the hot-work ceased the embers reached flash-point.

15 minutes later the roof was completely gone. After 25 minutes the fire department arrived. The water pressure in the hydrants in the village was almost zero - therefore the fire department emptied our well onto the fire. Tankers arrived and they emptied them onto the fire but only to contain the fire within the shell of the building.

Many of the residents of Week St. Mary were as devastated as we were at the loss of the house which had been a part of the village life and history since the late 1800’s. Alan and I have been asked many times how things are progressing and we thank all those people for their kind wishes and interest in the ongoing saga.

For those who do not know the history, we moved to Lambley Park in October 2003 and started a refurbishment/renovation program that was due to culminate in May 2004 with the re-opening of the Lambley Park Country House Hotel on 1st June 2004. Unfortunately in April 2004 whilst the decorators were working on the external woodwork using hot air guns, fire, fanned by strong south-westerly winds destroyed the hotel despite the valiant efforts of the local fire fighters.

© Alan Middleton

The building was unsafe to be left as it was, after the devastating fire and consequently the decision to demolish the shell was taken.

For safety reasons the remains of the hotel were demolished in July 2005. Who could have predicted how slow the wheels would turn... Until the finances are resolved the rebuild phase cannot be started.

Some 20 months on the case between the decorators and their insurance company is still on-going and currently rests with a final decision yet to be made by the Financial Ombudsman. In anticipation of a decision being imminent, outline planning was sought and granted to rebuild the hotel.

Our intention is to continue fighting insurance companies and eventually secure the funds to rebuild the Lambley Park Hotel. In the interim Alan is putting his 30 years experience in the computer industry to good use and is offering installation, upgrades, help and advice for those with home PC & network requirements at village prices.

Andrea Peek & Alan Middleton

• Lambley Park Country Hotel - website - email: alan@lambley-park.co.uk