Welcombe Hotel occupies a 19th-century former country mansion house near Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire, which was previously known as Welcombe House. It is a Grade II* listed building.
History
Some of the lands at Welcombe, which are recorded as part of the
Manorialism of Old Stratford, date as far back as 1182 AD.
The estate ultimately came into the possession of the Clopton family, into which one of William's three daughters, Martha, had married. Various conveyancing of the lands took place in the 18th century and at one point — between 1760 and 1768 — they were divided into three parts. The estate had been acquired by John Lloyd of Snitterfield by 1777 and it later passed to his oldest son, George, who lived there until dying at the age of 63 in 1831.
Construction
By 1842, the estate was in the hands of Mark Philips, a
Manchester businessman and member of parliament.
Philips was High Sheriff in 1851. In about 1866 he commissioned
Thomas Newby to build a new mansion house in a
Neo-Jacobean style to designs by architect
Henry Clutton.
This project was completed in 1869.
Philips died in 1873, leaving the estate of almost to his brother, Robert Needham Philips.
In 1876 he erected a
sandstone obelisk at a cost of £7,000. The structure, which is now
Listed building, stands on high ground and is visible for many miles around.
[Nicholson, Jean et al: The Obelisks of Warwickshire, page 41. Brewin Books, 2013] On Robert's death in 1890, the property was inherited by Caroline, his daughter,
who married Sir George Otto Trevelyan.
Their third son, eminent Cambridge historian, George Macaulay Trevelyan, was born at Welcombe House in 1876 and later described it:
Hotel
George Otto Trevelyan died in 1928, aged 90, and the house was bought by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway.
The railway company significantly altered and extended the buildings and opened them as a hotel on 1 July 1931.
[Maggs, Colin G: The Branch Line of Warwickshire, page 77. Amberley, 2011] The company briefly used a Ro-railer to transport people from the station to the hotel, but it was soon phased out as being bumpy and uncomfortable.
Bought and operated from the 1990s by Menzies Hotels Group, it was converted it into a spa and golf club occupying an estate of .
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