their mother said “I sold it for £25 and here’s £12-10 shillings for each of you”. They never forgave her for that.

After school, Tim was determined to follow his career inclination and started work at Ye Olde Bell Hotel in Barnby Moor, near Retford where he was born, and he quickly rose through the ranks.

The brothers outside Ye Olde Bell

Ye Olde Bell today.

Tim relaxed

He then moved to the 5 star Westbury Hotel, one of the finest venues in London’s Mayfair. This was at the height of the Swinging Sixties when London was the centre of the universe and Tim made sure he didn’t miss out – he was at the epicentre. Without in any way neglecting his hotel duties, he was a founding member of the Playboy Cluband Crockfords, the famed exclusive gaming club, where he was to be seen in hand-made tuxedo and silk-lined cloak. After 2 years in London he got a post at a 5-star hotel in Cologne, before moving to one of Europe’s most luxurious venues, L’Hotel de Crillon in Paris (below).

L'Hotel de Crillon

He then returned to England, to work at the Salcombe Hotel in Devon, before moving to the Tara Hotel at Upton St. Leonards, near Gloucester (since re-named the Hatton Court Hotel). Here he met Rosamund (née Crozier) who worked at the same hotel and in 1973 they married. Ros already had two children and a son, Stephen, was born in 1975.

In 1977, they decided to go in with another couple in buying the Moors Park Hotel in Bishopsteignton,