Fifty years of fond memories are set to come flooding back to Miles Jessop tonight as he celebrates being the owner of a landmark Lake District hotel with a special party attended by loyal guests.
Toasts will ring out to mark the exact day half a century ago that a pin-striped suited Mr Jessop, accompanied by his equally well dressed solicitor and accountant, attended a board meeting in the Scafell Hotel at Rosthwaite, in the Borrowdale valley, at which his takeover was concluded at 5pm.
“You can imagine us turning up in our pin-striped suits as guests lolled on the lawns with their drinks,” said Mr Jessop. “We stuck out like sore thumbs.
“You have got to realise that I was only 29 years old when I took over and to win over the staff and guests was a challenge that I faced in the early days.
“They were worried that I was going to tart up the hotel and change its character beyond what it had been for so many years. So one of the first things I did was to write to all the residents to reassure them that they were not going to see big changes to the hotel.”
Previous to Mr Jessop taking over, the hotel had been run by the Badrock family for 47 years.
Mr Jessop was able to persuade the then manageress, Rietta Guthrie, to delay her retirement after 27 years at the hotel, and he described her as the “lynch pin” of the operation” during the first season he was there.
Mr Jessop said “the great mix of guests” that visit the hotel has helped create some “wonderful memories” and recalled an incident when he took a party of American tourists, all members of the Appalachian Mountain Club, to the top of Scafell Pike where a waiter “in full livery” served them champagne.
He also met film star Mel Gibson who was in the area doing some research on the west coast for a movie called The Bounty about the famous mutiny.
Mr Jessop was introduced to the actor by the film’s director but admitted that he did not know who he was!
But that did not stop him getting into a conversation with the Hollywood star and showed him pictures of Pitcairn Island — where mutiny leader Lt Fletcher Christian ended up — as Mr Jessop had recently sailed close to it.
But one of the hotel’s most famous guests was scientist and engineer Sir Barnes Wallis, best known for inventing the bouncing bomb, who visited for more than 52 years with his family.
Whenever he came he insisted on a large table to be in his room on which he could carry on with his engineering design work when the weather was inclement.
“To commemorate this we made a suite in the hotel named after him, and this was completed in 2008 along with further refurbishments of other rooms in the hotel,” said Mr Jessop.
“To celebrate this we had a fly by of a GR4 Tornado from 617 Squadron based at RAF Leuchars using this as part of their training programme.”
Among other stand out memories for Mr Jessop were a couple of 60th birthday parties he helped in planning.
One saw him guide television presenter and keen climber and hill walker, Ian McNaught-Davis, up Napes Needle on Great Gable and the other saw BBC Radio Stockholm correspondent Roger Wallis fill the hotel with reporters from all over the globe.
The hotel was a magnet for renowned climbers and walkers such as Sir Chris Bonington, Joe Brown, Alfred Wainwright and Eric Robson.
“What has made it for me is the great mix of guests that come to the hotel and the staff – we have always been very particular in recruiting quality staff who look after the guests and we have built our reputation on that,” said Mr Jessop.
“We get such a wide variety of people staying and a lot of them are professional people such as doctors and dentists and you don’t know who you are going to meet next.”
The hotel has also had royal visitors including the Prince of Wales stopping off at the Riverside Bar on one of his trips to the area and the Duke of Edinburgh presenting prizes in 2001 to runners who had participated in the gruelling Borrowdale Fell Race, which has a long association with the hostelry.
And the future of the hotel looks bright although Mr Jessop said the COVID-19 pandemic had been “very, very difficult”.
“But I am expecting a very good season this year because I think a lot of people will want to stay at home,” said Mr Jessop.
“I have no ambitions to fly anywhere. The thought of flying with a mask on seems abhorrent to me. I think there is going to be a great bonanza for the Lake District and other parts of the UK.”
