Stories from Southlands Hotel, by Iris Ansell: 8 The Last Hotel Story

Continued from

https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/02/stories-from-southlands-hotel-by-iris_28.html

 




Pictured above is Budleigh resident Iris Ansell. As a volunteer at Fairlynch Museum Iris looked after the Costume Department. In this article, the eighth and last in the series, she recalls more memorable moments from her time as proprietor of Southlands Hotel in Budleigh Salterton   



 

About the late 1980s the economic situation changed in Britain. VAT was increased, stocks and shares were paying very little, and the cheap holiday abroad had arrived, with guaranteed good weather.



 

Southlands Hotel brochure

After two years with bad weather, and guest occupancy down due to lack of funds of our older clientele, we decided to give up the hotel life after nearly 20 years.



 


The Jacuzzi: offering hotel guests a sensuous experience, it remained sadly empty!  

Image credit: Pavel Ševela

We sold to a young couple with lots of ideas, They closed for three months, put in new bathrooms, recarpeted, even putting in a Jacuzzi in what had been the staff rest room. The bedrooms all had make-overs.


 

The 'Rosie', before and after 

 The Rosemullion had been sold and was due to be turned into flats, and the young couple hoped to get their trade from the new residents. But the M5 was now open, and people who had come from the Bristol area for a week’s holiday could now come as day trippers, or fly from Bristol on a package holiday more cheaply than staying with us.

After the make-over they opened for business on the Easter. I had always made a point of showing guests to their rooms, helping with the luggage, and to make sure they had everything they needed, i.e. tea-making facilities, spare pillows and blankets and plenty of towels. The young couple had retained most of our staff, the receptionist, Bessie, being one of them.



 

The gentle charm of the Otter Valley at Budleigh Salterton 

Bessie showed the first couple to their room. They were guests who normally came three times a year, not travelling very far, but loved the Otter Valley.

 



Another sensuous experience, offered in vain to Southlands guests

Image credit: www.bonobeds.co.uk

The door was thrown open, and Bessie very proudly showed them, not the twin beds they had expected, but a king-size four-poster all beautifully draped, and a shower room, not the deep bath that was there before. 

The lady turned to Bessie and said: ‘Why dear, I haven’t slept with my husband for 40 years and I don’t intend to do so now’.  They had to find a little single bed for the husband and the lady slept in the king size on her own. This happened several times during the season, and nobody used the Jacuzzi.

Southlands Hotel: before and after 

They sold to developers at the end of the season, and what happened next can be found in the Local History Room at the Museum.

Thus ended our life in hotels here in Budleigh and before, in Paignton. They had been very happy years. But it was time for a change.

Sadly, my husband died two years later in 1991. I moved back to London and the fashion trade for which I had been trained in the late 1940s and 50s.


 


Iris’ painting of the Otter Valley, from a 2011 Budleigh Salterton Art Club exhibition

I returned in 2007, to be near family, and worked in the Costume Department at Fairlynch Museum.  I have many hobbies and keep busy,

Thank you for letting me share my memories with you.

The previous Southlands Hotel story was told at https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2021/02/stories-from-southlands-hotel-by-iris_28.html

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