An historic Derbyshire hotel which is thought to have once been owned by Sir Walter Raleigh is to be sold next month (april) at auction with heb Chartered Surveyors.
The Green Man and Black’s Head Royal Hotel in Ashbourne was built in 1750 and is the result of two separate pubs being joined together. Its sign stretches across St John’s Street and was once listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest inn sign in the world – when it was called The Royal Green Man and Blackamoor’s Head Commercial and Family Hotel.
The hotel is also where the planning happens for the famous 1000-year-old Royal Ashbourne Shrovetide Football which takes place every year and sees two teams vying for a ball at opposite ends of the town.
With a guide price of £450,000, the Green Man and Blacks Head is an historic coaching inn which has two bars. There are 17 lettable rooms to the upper floors, two function rooms and a rear beer garden and car park for ten cars. The hotel is being sold on behalf of the receiver.
Matt Hilton, auctioneer and partner at heb, said: “This is a hotel steeped in history and really well known in Ashbourne and the rest of Derbyshire. It is the place where the Shrovtide Football was planned – but the hotel has many other stories to tell.
“On looking through the history of the place, it is know that Sir Walter Raleigh owned land in St John Street and it is likely he owned the hotel too.
“There is a huge growth area in pubs with rooms and the Green Man and Black’s Head is ideal for this as it is already laid out as such. More pubs than ever are adding rooms to their offering to increase their offering – and turnover.”
Matt will be putting the hotel under the hammer on 18 April at the next heb auction at The Gateway Hotel, Nuthall Road, Cinderhill, Nottingham.
“We have already had a great deal of interest in the hotel,” says Matt. “It obviously opens up a great deal of opportunities for an owner who wants to run it as a successful pub and small hotel.
“Being so close to the Peak District, the town attracts lots of tourists, particularly for the Shrovetide Football of which the hotel forms an integral part.”
At the beginning of the 1800s, the hotel was known as the Holyoak Hotel, with Holyoak being the name of the landlord. It was during the Napoleonic Wars when the French prisoners of war were based in Ashbourne and the inn was used by a French priest where he conducted services.
