Bosworth Hall Hotel

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Bosworth Hall Hotel is a hotel in the rural town of Market Bosworth in Leicestershire, England. It boasts 192 en-suite rooms, Spindles health and leisure club, Jenny's Carvery restaurant, Cromptons fine dining restaurant and Courtyard Bar. The hotel also has full conference and banqueting facilities for a wide range of functions, from weddings to corporate seminars.

[edit] History

The hotel is based around a former stately home belonging to the once wealthy Dixie family. The Dixie family have strong connections with Market Bosworth dating back to the 12th Century and lived on the estate of the current hotel since at least the early 17th Century. The parkland was purchased by Wolstan Dixie, Lord Mayor of London, in 1589. The current building was built during the reign of William and Mary by Sir Beaumont Dixie, 2nd Bt, after he inherited the estate in 1682. When the Dixie family fortune was lost in the late 19th century to gambling debts, the home was one of the first things to be sold. The estate was purchased in 1885 by Charles Tollemache Scott who made numerous improvements to the building and added his initials to some of the iron guttering, which can still be seen to this day. Among other changes Tollemache Scott made, the cellar gates were replaced with cell doors from the Newgate Prison in London. The gate is still there to this present day, and is situated at the entrance to the Newgate bar.

Tollemache Scott's daughter, Wenefryde, sold Bosworth Hall estate in 1913. It changed hands twice more, before being sold to Leicestershire County Council in 1931. It became a hospital, which it remained until the 1980s. The hospital closed and the estate was purchased by a construction firm intent on turning the building into a hotel. The construction firm had bitten off more than they could chew, and eventually went bankrupt. The conversion to a hotel was completed when the Britannia hotel chain purchased the property.

[edit] Trivia

All advertising literature produced by Britannia Hotels incorrectly state that the hotel is located in Warwickshire. This is probably caused by confusion surrounding the hotels postal address; the hotel has a Coventry postcode and the nearest sorting office is located in Nuneaton. This means that Warwickshire is featured in the postal address of the hotel as all the post is delivered to the Nuneaton sorting office, which is in Warwickshire. However, the hotel is geographically located quite comfortably within the boundaries of Leicestershire.