The Historic and Haunted Jamaica Inn is sold for over £2M

Bodmin Moor's historic Jamaica Inn sells for more than £2 million.


THE historic Bodmin Moor inn that inspired a best-selling classic has been sold for more than £2 million to a businessman from Surrey.

 

Allen Jackson made an offer for Jamaica Inn within an hour of viewing it, with interest in the 18th century smugglers’ inn received from all over the world after it was put onto the market in January.

Immortalised in Daphne du Maurier’s historical novel, the 17-bedroom inn was once owned by thriller writer Alistair McLean and was sold by John and Wendy Watts, who bought it for £176,000 in 1976.

Matthew Smith of agents Christie & Co, which handled the sale, said that the inn had received an “extraordinary” amount of interest as a result of its iconic status.

Mr Smith, director at the Exeter branch, said that the time between launching instruction and exchanging contracts was the quickest that he had witnessed in his 12 years at the agency.

Mr Jackson, of Dorking, said he hopes to "breathe new life into this fantastic and historic location" and intends to split his time between Surrey and Cornwall.

"I saw it as a great opportunity to acquire Cornwall's most iconic, historic and famous inn,” he said.

“Providing traditional and high levels of service are core to what I will be offering in the future.”

He will spend at least five days a week at the inn running the business himself and will also appointing hospitality and admin managers to look after the business while he is away.

Jamaica Inn was built in 1750 as a coaching inn for travellers using the turnpike between Launceston and Bodmin.

Smugglers are believed to have hid contraband in the inn, which gained its name because of its considerable trade in rum.

The inn is the setting for Daphne DuMaurier’s bodice-ripper in which orphaned Mary Yelland discovers that her brutish uncle’s hostelry is a front for a gang of cut-throat smugglers.

Set in the early 19th century, the novel has been a favourite with film-makers since it was published in 1936, with Alfred Hitchcock making the first screen version in 1939. The BBC is set to air a new adaptation of the book this Easter.

“With the BBC adaption airing around Easter, I believe it is a very timely acquisition,” Mr Jackson added.

A number of rooms in the inn are also said to be haunted, and it was described as one of the ‘spookiest’ places ever visited by the team of television’s Most Haunted, when they filmed on location there.

Article > The Cornish Guardian

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