Pair keen to develop Ashfield

A 17th-century hotel in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, has changed hands after 15 years. Ashfield House Hotel in the village of Grassington, Upper Wharfedale, was sold by the Leeds office of Christie & Co, on behalf of proprietors Keith and Linda Harrison. It changed hands for an undisclosed sum off an asking price of £700,000 for the freehold. The new owners of the hotel are Joe Azzopardi and Elizabeth Webb who are from the village of Stone Cross, near Pevensey Bay on the East Sussex coast. "Joe Azzopardi was formerly manager of the acclaimed Solberge Hall Country House Hotel in Newby Wiske, near Northallerton, north Yorkshire, which is renowned for its à la carte and gourmet meals," said selling agent Mark Bailey. "Joe and Elizabeth intend to further develop the restaurant element of the hotel." Ashfield hotel is just off a cobbled village square, which is famed for its themed Dickensian Christmas weekends and is popular year round with thousands of visitors. The hotel is a detached Grade-II listed, limestone-built property, under a stone tile roof.