Historic Seckford Hall, at Great Bealings, near Woodbridge could justifiably lay claim to being Suffolk’s most beautiful hotel. Built in the 1540s, it boasts its own ghost, at one time played host to Queen Elizabeth I and is thought to have had its own secret passage to Woodbridge Abbey. It began a new chapter in its long history when it was turned into a hotel after World War II. Sarah Chambers met up with owner Michael Bunn, who has been running the business for the last 45 years.

HOTELIER Michael Bunn is a difficult
man to keep up with. The hospitality trade
runs through his veins, and in between
being interviewed, he takes note of a dead
light bulb in the sitting area of his hotel,
and hurries off briefly to welcome a new
member of staff.

He arrived at Seckford Hall, a splendid Elizabethan pile, at the age of seven, the only child of Harold, a pharmacist from Chelmsford, and wife Lenna, and has remained there, bar a few years’ training and working in London hotels, ever since. It’s an ancient building which creaks with age, and is filled with carved panelling and even a reredos, or screen , brought to the hall by its previous owner in 1945. Michael took over the running of the hotel in 1965, at the age of just 22, following the death of his father.

He inherited a small, seven room hotel business which was run as a small “hobby” hotel by his parents. It welcomed colonels, brigadiers and titled guests – but boasted just a single private bathroom. Over the years, he has transformed it into a prestigious four star hotel with a two AA rosette restaurant, and facilities including a swimming pool and beautifully maintained grounds. For his parents, the hotel had been a pleasant pastime, providing a sociable lifestyle as much as a living. “Going back to 1951 my parents bought it as a retirement hobby job if you like,” explains Michael. “My father was a chemist in Chelmsford, a dispensing pharmacist. I suppose, you see, in a chemists’ shop in those days you made up your own drugs which was not dissimilar to pouring a scotch.” Lenna took care of the bedroom and restaurant side while Harold mixed drinks and socialised with guests.

“They had a very large private house before and a big staff and it was an easy way to get staff in a period after the war,” says Michael. The hotel had been created out of a beautiful Elizabethan hall which had eventually fallen into decay. At one point during the late 19th century, the Great Hall was used as a granary . In 1939, it was bought by a demolition contractor, but then it was purchased by Sir Ralph Harwood, former financial secretary to King George V. It was commandeered during the war, but in 1945, Sir Ralph regained possession, and began the huge task of restoring it, and fitting it out with 15 six-ton lorry loads of panelling, ceiling, doors and carved beams. In early 1949, he opened it as a hotel, which he ran with his son, John.

It was an upmarket place to come, and despite the lack of private bathroom facilities, welcomed some of the social elite. “It had got a very small trade because there were only seven bedrooms so it was a very tiny operation in those days. Mother was very much into making sure the restaurant and the staffing all ran well. Father looked after the bar and the wines,” says Michael. While his parents ran the hotel, Michael had the run of the grounds, where he would play with his school friends. After leaving school, he decided to go into the hotel trade himself and after training, went to work for some of the top London hotels.

“I was intending to go into being an estate manager but I changed my mind and went to hotel school at the Westminster College and did my training there and at two London hotels. I went to Claridges then on to Grosvenor House,” he explains. “I arranged then to go to Switzerland but father got ill and died rather prematurely so then I had to come back and took over and ran it.”

Michael ran the business with his mother for a while, then gradually took it over. Eventually, he married and now he and wife, Christine, oversee the various aspects of the hotel, with Christine focusing on housekeeping and decor. After his father became ill and eventually died in 1965, Michael set about modernising the hotel to bring it up to the standard of the hotels he had seen in London. He recognised that while many hotels did not have private bathrooms, en suite facilities were becoming increasingly important in upmarket establishments. He also focused on expanding the hotel to provide more rooms, and installing central heating.

“When I came back in here the first thing I set about doing was to make it bigger and putting in private bathrooms. The first priority – I remember it well because I came in a little bit before he died – was put in central heating and did away with the electric fires in the rooms. Then I started to put in extra bedrooms and converted the second floor attic to bedrooms and built the east wing,” he says. “I tried to just get right over to en suite as soon as possible.” The sale of a next door farm enabled the Bunns to expand the operation further, adding a pool and an informal dining area, as well as more modern family-style rooms. “We expanded bit by bit through the years. In 1975 we put on banqueting suite and a lot more bedrooms. We bought the farm in 1989 and that’s now the courtyard with swimming pool and a second restaurant and kitchen.”

We started in March 2009 and we finished at Christmas. We have done all the rooms up – all 32 bedrooms. We kept it running. "We took about 3 rooms off at a time,” The paint was barely dry on the newly refurbished rooms before the work moved on to the next set until the work was completed.

“The result has been ideal because it's given the customers more what they have been asking for – in other words slightly more modern but contemporary decor sparking brand new bathrooms and good showers,” explains Michael.

“Bathrooms need to be comfortable but can be traditional or modern and we have a blend of different styles to try and suit all tastes. The last thing you want is a tired old bath and dirt round the tiles you just don't want to see all that. You have got to start with fresh tiles you can't clean out grout - it just doesn't work"

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