Seckford Hall hotel on sale for £4.1m

13 March 2017 by
Seckford Hall hotel on sale for £4.1m

Seckford Hall hotel in Woodbridge, Suffolk, has been brought to market for £4.1m for the freehold of the property.

The property is being sold by Stephen and Julie Pankhurst, the founders of early social networking site Friends Reunited. The couple acquired the four-AA-star, 15th century property in 2012 from Christine and Michael Bunn, whose family had run the business since 1951.

The Pankhursts embarked on a multi-million pound refurbishment of the 32-bedroom hotel in 2013 and are now said to be selling the hotel "to focus on other business sectors". They personally made around £30m from the £175m sale of Friends Reunited to ITV in 2005.

Colliers International is handling the marketing of Seckford Hall and has set a bid deadline of 27 April 2017.

The Grade II-listed country house hotel, which is set within around 10 acres of land, has a two-AA-rosette, 80-cover restaurant; an array of multi-functional events rooms; and a spa with heated pool. A detached former hunting lodge and multiple other outbuildings also form part of the sale.

The Hall is said to have been the dynastical home of the Seckford family, Thomas Seckford having being an official of Queen Elizabeth I, and some of the furniture in the building can be traced back to Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.

Paul Barrasford, director of hotels agency, Colliers International said: "Seckford Hall is a magnificent Tudor building with a rich and illustrious history. Under the tenure of the current owner, the property has benefited from an extensive investment programme across multiple areas of the building, helping to make it the successful business it is today yet still with huge growth potential."

Founders of Friends Reunited plough millions into Seckford Hall hotel >>

Priory Bay hotel on sale for £3m after going into administration >>

Two of Skye's largest hotels for sale >>

Videos from The Caterer archives

Are you looking for a new role? See all the current hospitality vacancies available with The Caterer Jobs

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking