Further investment planned for Honiton hotel

The Deer Park in Weston, Honiton is delighted to announce that there will be further investment made into the hotel in 2014.

Work will commence this month on the refurbishment of the hotel’s Mews Rooms, situated adjacent to the main house of the hotel overlooking the walled garden. The work will also include further renovations to the main house and ongoing updates to the hotel’s grounds.

This announcement comes after a big year of transformation at the country house hotel, with over £500,000 invested in the hotel and its grounds in 2013. This included a range of new additions; newly landscaped Italian garden and fountains, the installation of the Bushman wood-fired oven, resurfaced driveway, refurbished restaurant and conservatory as well as the installation of a zip wire in the woods.

“We’re so thrilled to announce that we will be continuing to invest in this beautiful country house hotel, said Managing Director, Mark Godfrey.

“Our aim is to be one of the leading hotel and wedding venues in the South West, so all of these fabulous additions will certainly help us achieve this goal, along with the dedication and passion from our top notch team.

“We’ve had an unbelievable 2013 here at the Deer Park. We were delighted to pick up Silver at the Devon Tourism Awards in the Business and Venue category but next year we’ll be going for gold!”

The hotel is committed to supporting the local community and is proud to continue its sponsorship of Honiton Cricket Club and support other local organisations. In the last year, Deer Park has employed an additional 10 local staff including 3 young apprentices. The business is now contributing much more to the local economy and the turnaround has been a staggering success.

Environmental issues are also high on the Deer Park’s agenda. A new biomass boiler was installed in October significantly increasing sustainable energy, a new ‘zero waste to landfill’ policy has been implemented and the hotel’s own walled garden has been restored and is now a key supplier of fresh produce for the restaurant.

“The walled garden is now producing a huge amount of fruit and vegetables from which goes straight on the menu! This year we’ve had heritage tomatoes, salad leaves, beans, herbs and an array of root vegetables. The bees have also been busy producing honey for the breakfast tables and we’ve had over 400 bottles of freshly squeezed apple juice from the Deer Park orchard!” added Mark.

The Deer Park’s plan for next year also involves hosting a range of courses in the grounds. The first of the courses is Apple Tree Pruning (22nd February) with dates soon to be announced for more courses in the spring, including Falconry, Cookery, Beekeeping, Foraging and Country Pursuits.

So it’s certainly chocks away at Deer Park, who send their thanks to all of its local customers and suppliers and look forward to an extremely successful 2014.

For further information about the Deer Park visit www.deerparkcountryhotel.co.uk or call 01404 41266.