PLANS: Jersey Farm Hotel
PLANS: Jersey Farm Hotel

THE new owners of the Jersey Farm Hotel, in Barnard Castle, a proposing a raft of developments to make it a premier wedding venue.
Apartment Group closed the hotel at short notice at the end of February after it took over the premises from the Watson family who had run it for many years. Now the owners are proposing to build a new function room, wedding reception suite and outdoor ceremony area.
In an application to county planners, agents Rycroft Design Associates said the
development would be sympathetic to the “agricultural feel and provide it with rustic feel”.
The agents added that one of the main reasons the hotel, which had been used extensively as a wedding venue, had suffered a decline in income was because it did not have a licensed wedding chapel to host ceremonies.
Nor was it big enough to accommodate larger weddings, the agents said.
Rycroft Design Associates said: “The existing buildings are mainly stone built, with timber windows and slate roofs. We are proposing a more agricultural feel to our new building – a Dutch barn type.
“In order to incorporate the scale of the new function suite against the existing stone-built farmhouse, we have proposed a low-level plane glazed unit, housing the reception area, to allow a transition from farmhouse to working barn.”
Apartment Group owns a number of luxurious wedding venues, including Le Petit Chateau, in Northumberland.