Genesis

Introduced to the proprietor of a body shop, a paint-job expert working in a shack on a shanty black economy encampment just off the main road by Wonky. Three thousand pounds and three months he quoted to repair and spray the Shadow.

“If you give it to him you’ll never see the car again. I know”, the pucker old-school hands-on garage proprietor said who was preparing the Spirit for an MOT.

Mystified, why I believed him I do not know, but it was an eye-opener, a positive statement forcefully made by a relative stranger. And the sort of heavyweight calumny that could get a person in trouble from the lurking in the silent, hazy, hooting owl moonlight. There was no reason I knew, except basic decency, why he would stick his neck out to help me.

By the way Wonky was the electrician who put his foot through the ceiling of Room 14 soon after we’d taken over the hotel and we hadn’t seen for a number of years afterwards, but was at this time re-wiring the hotel very slowly. It was as if he was having ideas which though good and given the go-ahead by me were boring in the execution. Or he hadn’t thought through and the difficulty was proving tiresome, the solutions avoided or put off, not to be faced; unsurmountable maybe.

Then came the wedding car matter. It was in 2015 a wedding reception was booked at the hotel, an evening do, with a buffet and music, a proper shindig. We knew the girl and her siblings well, being regular Saturday night after-hours drinkers. Anyway, a matter of days before the event she was stood up, the groom decided not to get married in spite of the fact the bride-to-be was the mother of two of his children.

The girl, unfazed told us not to worry, the party would go ahead as planned. She had invited lots of people, family and friends, and she felt like a celebration to lift her spirits. Admirable defiance.

Very shortly afterwards we learned she had found another boyfriend and marriage was on the cards. It was going to be a quiet affair with no feasting. I offered as a favour, a friendly gesture, to supply the wedding car. After being told the girl was very pleased to accept my offer I was truly winded by the next message. They couldn’t use our car, I was told, because if they did the groom’s mother and father wouldn’t attend the wedding because I owed them £30,000.

The groom, a lot younger than the bride incidentally, happened to be the son of the people we’d bought the hotel off.

So, many of the set-backs and unpleasantnesses’ we’d experienced over the past 20 years, the unfathomable, subtle beyond belief, small and large issues suddenly made sense as an explanation pelted my understanding. A cumulative poison had been spreading, souring attitudes, the stupidity of which chokes as the ugliness of grudge bewilders.

Girls leaving our employ for no good reason, questioning by customers at various times on matters that seemed none of their business. Threats by a man putting off people who would do business with us. People not coming into the bar after they’d said we could be sure of their business after the purchase.

And our Citroen, our white Citroen BX, which in the early days I’d given to the amiable Slippery to repair, and struggled with weeks of patience without a car before I got it back with the test certificate work not done. Regrettably we scrapped the car.

I’d unwittingly strayed into a network of contaminated hostiles.

The facts, the truth, and nothing but the truth is best expressed in actual letters and extracts of letters from 1996 and our purchase negotiations for the business.

26th January 1996. Ref.Jp/SP

Dear Mr Hoyles,

RE; The Hotel Continental

Further to our telephone conversation today we are pleased to confirm that, under current market conditions, our commercial banks will lend up to £91,000 to assist you in your proposed purchase of The Hotel Continental, subject to satisfactory business valuation and underwriting.

As discussed, we will be trying to obtain figures for 1995 through the selling agents. In the meantime, we would be grateful if you could let us have a profit and loss projection for the hotel, as the 1994 that we have are not very helpful.

If you have any queries……………..

Yours sincerely,

Managing Director

c.c.Nationwide Businesses Limited.

We were very pleased and optimistic on receipt of this mortgage offer which satisfied the substantial mortgage possibility mentioned in the sales particulars.

We immediately requested up to date accounts from the vendor, to proceed.

Our Solicitor………

1st February 1996.

Dear Mr Hoyles and Mrs Bradbury,

The Hotel Continental, Dovercourt.

Following my telephone conversation with Mr.Hoyles last week, I have now heard from

Nationwide Businesses of Purley, Surrey, with details of your proposed purchase of the Hotel for £130,000 plus Stock at Valuation.

I have also heard from Solicitors in Colchester acting for the present owners. They have asked for clarification of whether the purchase depends on sale of an existing property and also of what your financial arrangements are. I have told them that you are not dependent on a sale but that you are still finalising your financial arrangements. It will presumably be helpful if you could let me have details of the proposed borrowing once this has all been sorted out.

Obviously, we have not yet received any Contract documentation from the other Solicitors as yet. Once we do, then we ought at that stage to put in hand the necessary Local Council Searches, and we will need your remittance for £80 on account of the Search fees which we shall have to pay out.

Yours sincerely,

2.2.’96

Dear Sir,

Please find herein a cheque for £80 for the pending Search fees for Hotel Continental, Dovercourt.

Also enclosed a copy of Inventory of Fixtures and Fittings received this morning from Nationwide Businesses Ltd.

We leave on Sunday 4th February and return on 15th February. Should there be any dramatic developments you can leave a message on ……….

Yours faithfully,

G.W.Hoyles

The 4th to 15th February was a pre-arranged holiday in Pasadena, California visiting my Daughter and her new husband.

Our Solicitor,

29th April 1996.

Dear Mr Hoyles ad Mrs Bradbury,

As requested, I have written to the Police asking for a reference for you.

I have also now heard from the Sellers’ Solicitors, and it is clear that they are getting a little concerned by the delay in finalisation of your mortgage arrangements. I had previously told them that matters were delayed by your Bank Manager’s absence on holiday, but presumably he is back by now.

They also made two further points with regard to the application which will have to be made in due course for transfer of the Justices’ Licences. Firstly, they say that the Local Magistrates practice is to oppose transfers to anyone who has not got experience of working in Licenced premises and who has not been on an appropriate course. I believe that you are already addressing these issues. However, clearly it is desirable that you continue to obtain as much experience as possible – both formal and informal – and that you can produce to the Court when the time comes precise details and evidence of the course or courses that you have gone on and all the other experience you have obtained.

Yours sincerely,

………….Solicitors

From 15th February to 29th April seems a very long time. However, we were not idle. We made approaches to other lenders. Saffron Walden Building Society, Barclays Bank and our own bank, Lloyds. All of these companies asked for up to date accounts, financial statements concerning the business we were asking them to finance. It took weeks of repeated requests and visits to Dovercourt before we received a set of figures even we could see would have resulted in no-one lending. We took the risk of making some adjustments before submitting them to the scrutiny of the experts. Barclays Bank flatly refused to consider lending to any business in Dovercourt. The Saffron Walden Building Society showed some interest but did some we thought rather strange tests trying to establish our ability to manage and run a hotel. One such was proof of Blossom’s cooking skills. They sent two ladies by appointment to eat a dinner prepared by Blossom. It went down well. It was also necessary for independent valuations to be prepared, all of which took time to arrange. And in the end the numbers proved unsatisfactory and Saffron Walden to whom we were attracted by very low interest rates, declined. Which left us with Lloyds.

Our Solicitor,

16th May, 1996

Dear Mr Hoyles & Mrs Bradbury,

I have heard yet again from the Sellers’ Solicitors who are getting very concerned at the lack of progress on this matter. Can you please contact me as soon as possible to let me know what is going on. Obviously if you have decided for some reason not to proceed, it is only right that the other parties involved should know as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely,

……….

P.S. We have spoken on the telephone since this was dictated.

(Handwritten on the bottom of the letter)

Our Solicitor,

28th May 1996.

Dear Mr.Hoyles and Mrs Bradbury,

How did you get on with the Bank last Tuesday? I am again being pressured by the Sellers’ Solicitors.

I have certainly not heard anything from the Bank setting out an offer of finance or the terms on which such an offer is made. Have you had a letter?

It would be helpful if you could brief me with the up-to-date position.

Yours sincerely,

…………..

P.S. This was dictated before Mr Hoyles telephoned this morning.

(Handwritten note)

On 23rd May Lloyds bank agreed a loan of £59,000. Unfortunately, it was not enough and after 5 months living off our capital, paying the mortgage on our bungalow and all the bills connected we didn’t have enough to cover our original full asking price offer.

Tuesday 18th June.

Dear Mr and Mrs,

I had made an application to borrow extra funds, £10,000 to cover the shortfall between what the bank were prepared to lend us and your asking price. The £10,000 to cover £5000 to you, our solicitor’s fees, accountants fees and a large tax bill due on 1st July. On Friday last I was told that the cheque was in the post but when it didn’t arrive today I rang them only to discover that they had rejected my application on the grounds that at the moment I am between businesses and technically speaking, unemployed.

I don’t believe we’ve any chance of finding this elsewhere because every lender will have the same criteria and we have sounded a few out. Of course, the building society would have given us these extra funds had the valuation from Carter Jonas come up to scratch. But as you know it didn’t.

Anyway, this means that we can only give you £110,000 in total by completion, unless you are prepared to wait for us to sell our bungalow.

We’ve paid the deposit and we were due to exchange contracts tomorrow but we won’t now do anything till we’ve got your response.

I’m very sorry but we’ve tried extremely hard all along to do the job quickly before we spent too much money, but all the lenders have been extremely nervous about lending money on your property and this is what has been the main problem, not us.

We do have £110,000.

Blossom

Nationwide Businesses

18th June 1996.

Dear Sir,

Although we have paid our deposit and are on the verge of exchange we are having second thoughts about buying The Hotel Continental.

To start, our cashflow projections were based on the claimed £3000 per week takings as stated on your sales particulars. When we eventually got the accounts from Mr and Mrs their figures fell far short. We were still prepared to go ahead based on their assurance that proper records were not kept and the takings were a great deal more than the accountant was aware of. However, our experience having made many visits to the hotel, mostly to organise borrowings from the local bank, suggests that even now in the early summer the takings are nowhere near £3000 per week. A crude estimate would put them at £1400. One component of which, the bar takings seems to be coming from a few intimate friends of Mr and Mrs, business which could easily evaporate when new people take over. We believe there have been winter days when the hotel has taken as little as £5.

Perhaps the business has been neglected since the point where we said we would buy it as to our knowledge remedies were not adopted in certain problem areas.

In addition, certain basic equipment is not working, one of which is a defective central heating boiler. Another is the dishwasher. We believe a dishwasher to be a necessity. Further, certain items are simply missing; for instance, proper sinks and a wash-hand basin behind the bar, which I feel the Environmental Health Department insist upon.

The above points become more serious if we give just a little credence to the report produced by Carter Jonas for the Saffron Walden Building Society.

Quote ‘the accumulative effect of all the smaller items of disrepair are very significant and a purchaser should equally not proceed without making themselves aware of the cost of overall remediation and refurbishment which is necessary to bring the property up to a satisfactory standard. If allowed to pull further into a state of disrepair a diminution in value could be anticipated. Present condition. £85,000’

We also know that electricity bills have not been paid and part of the hotel has had a card meter imposed by the electricity company, which is a ludicrous situation. We are told that various suppliers have not been paid, both small businesses in the area and breweries. And I understand that Mr…… was in court for non-payment of rates. We understand the manager’s wages have not been paid properly, being told that he was owed as much as £1000 at one point.

Carrying all this knowledge gleaned over the period during which we have repeatedly tried to raise more funds we were still keen to go ahead (incredible as it may seem).

Then came last Sunday. Father’s Day, 16th June. At Mr’s invitation we went along to help him run the place. We went along in good faith, not seeking to find anything out, not looking to discover any more problems. We had seen the dilapidation and the dirt. We were confident we’d formed a true picture and seen through the flannel. We went along to get started, eagerly, and to gain experience.

Arriving we were given a cool reception but we carried on regardless working at our pace ruled by our inexperience. But gradually, subtly, we were undermined. We felt embarrassed and awkward. I was undermined by a person Mr himself ran down. A person he advised me not to employ. It was a delicate situation. I was forced out and finally when Mr left an unemployed person in charge whilst he took a rest I felt totally humiliated. The person he chose incidentally was less experienced and less qualified than myself. A person who had no commitment whatsoever to the hotel. We felt we had been judged incapable and began for the first time to doubt our ability to run the place and raise this particular phoenix from the ashes.

Hitherto we were willing to put everything we had into the purchase but now we feel that to carry on we must retain some of our capital to immediately rectify some of the wrongs and to pay the bills we will incur until people start to use the place as we build our own customer base and our confidence grows.

We therefore can pay no more than £110,000.

We did fall in love with the place. We like it very much. But we must be realistic. We simply cannot afford to buy just a large house. We must buy a business which we feel has a chance of becoming viable.

Yours faithfully,

Gordon Hoyles.

Dear Mrs,

We wrote the enclosed letter addressed to the Selling Agent when we got back from the hotel on Sunday 16thJune. Of course, you didn’t know about your husband’s behaviour towards Gordon and so I don’t in any way hold you responsible, however we were so fed up that we no longer cared whether we bought the hotel or not and we still don’t.

We think you are lucky to find someone willing to buy it even at £110,000. Whatever mess Mr might have got himself into, we’re not responsible for and I think it is appalling that he should be so vindictive as to both accept our offer and then attempt to foul our takeover and any future relations with the people who might be our customers in Dovercourt.

We were bothered, very bothered that at this late stage after several months of no income and incurring purchase costs we hadn’t enough money. We wrote explaining but thinking this was a pretty poor way to behave decided to face the music and hence we had a meeting. We didn’t want to lose the hotel. Quite scared, very unsure of ourselves we sat in what became the breakfast room with Mr & Mrs Vendor and nervously explained. Mr Vendor looked very unhappy and I can’t say I blame him but we were where we were. I did say if we were successful business-wise we would try and find at some later date the £10,000 shortfall which we would pay him. It was an offer made in good faith and genuine. Further I said if at some point in the future we sold the business for a profit we would give them a share. That’s the way we left it. Where the £30,000 comes from I do not know. The worst way, £130,000 minus £110,000 isn’t thirty. After taking over I saw Mr. Vendor about twice in the hotel and for a long while after we took mail addressed to him round to his house. I was quite comfortable with the family, knew of no reason for friction, oblivious of any tension between us and would have been happy to socialise.

Just an observation I think if someone owed me £30,000 I would be calling on them for discussion until at least a settlement was reached. I think most people would.

Our Solicitor,

5th July, 1996

Dear Mr Hoyles and Mrs Bradbury,

RE: The Hotel Continental

As you know, your application for a Protection Order is due to be heard in the Harwich Magistrates Court this coming Tuesday 9th July.

I have arranged for a local firm of solicitors to appear for you. I understand that their Partner will be in the Court on other matters.

The Court sits at 10:00am, and you should make sure that you are there by about 9:30am so that there is plenty of time to have a word with the Partner.

I understand from the Bank that they expect to be in a position to produce the funds for completion on 11thJuly. I enclose a statement calculating the amount we shall require from you before then, and obviously we must have it in time for clearance by 11th July.

I enclose a copy of the letter recently received from the Seller’s Solicitor with regard to the points raised following your telephone calls. I gather from the Solicitor that Mr has now received the letter from them and that he has no objection to your arranging a meeting at the Hotel if you wish to do so.

Yours sincerely,

The Bank lent us £59,000 and we found the £51,000 and paid all our legal fees which left us pretty well brassic lint or skint.

Our Solicitor,

9th September 1996

Dear Mr Hoyles & Mrs Bradbury,

As explained to Mrs Bradbury on the telephone, there is an annoying formality to be undergone as a result of the fact that the legal documents were signed on behalf of one of the vendors by his Attorney. Since by the time the transaction was completed the Power of Attorney appointing his attorney was over 12 months old, it is necessary for the two of you to make a Statutory Declaration to the effect that you knew of no reason whereby it had become invalid. This is purely a formality which has to be carried out because of the length of time since the vendor signed the Power of Attorney.

I accordingly enclose the appropriate Statutory Declaration, and can you please arrange to make it before a local Solicitor. It can be made before any practising Solicitor, and his fee will be £10.00.

Please then return the Statutory declaration to me as soon as possible so that I can send it on to the Land Registry.

Yours sincerely,

From the fore-going it’s clear to see the whole transaction was a very messy business.

How wounding the ramifications, how far reaching, how long the capillaries of the horrible, sneaky spread of deep rotten-ness constantly moving head to head unseen as darker and darker the bruise became I do not know. But muck thrown sticks like shit to a blanket.

Come to think of it there could have been a happier outcome. For instance, joining us in a development programme could have led to a better happenstance for everyone concerned.

The world looking in, seeing all the developments and activity would easily assume we were doing well, had plenty of money. One chap from a bar stool, comforted by the optimism of alcohol, the feel-good factor of imbibing said, “I wish I was a pound behind you.”

I replied, “You’d only worry.” There was laughter, but it was no laughing matter, the old proverb ‘All that glistens is not golden’ has never had a more apposite application than to our position.

From the start we struggled. We appealed to the bank for an overdraft and was given an insulting £200 facility. That was laughable and worth than useless. From that point onwards, we were seldom out of the red. There was always something to fix or expensive response to a threat, do this or else – fire brigade, environmental health and general repairs; worn carpets, freezer failure and improvements to make. As we soon discovered there were whole systems we didn’t know were missing, didn’t know we needed but were essential things like beer cellar cooling at a cost of £2000. Beckoning to market share we aspired to star rating, Tourist board/AA recognition.

One way or another putting cash in the bank was like trying to fill a colander with water.

Without stopping to think and without realising we were actually trying to turn-round a failed business with empty pockets. All the time we were feeding the business with credit cards, brewery loans, mortgage increases and a promise of dubious business connections like Bartercard. We were always running on the spot, trying to catch up. We were responding to our opportunity but all the time driven by a nagging insecurity as changes were taking place around us, like ferry services to Sweden which had been very good to us, left the port in favour of Newcastle. We heard the move was something to do with duty-free government regulation. And it didn’t help having to battle with companies, Denholm Shipping for one who took too long to pay for our services.

Now, as I write, I wonder. It is alright to wonder. Pursuing a line of thought, triggering connections no matter how creative may be evidence but does not prove paranoia. Thinking is allowed. How else can we approach mysteries?

I nevertheless pursued a policy of vigorous expansion believing in a beautiful vision that couldn’t fail, that better and better must succeed, and it did, it worked, it looked good, produced encouragement and everything that came in went straight back into the beautiful vision as touches of quality impressed. But there were elements, destructive forces, niggles beyond comprehension, an insistent rabble, an unawareness, unimpressed by the detailed touches of quality, refusing to see, to acknowledge, frightened to look. But I rolled on enjoying the excitement of exploring what proved to be the edge of the precipice.

Six more bathrooms were needed. I created them at no expense spared. Bedside lights to be provided. A small thing but expensive and time-consuming. Marvellous, problems solved permanently, beautifully and for ever as ingenuity served artistic whim expressing freedom.

And the late friend of vendor insisted on showing me a piece of land assuring it was a sound investment and planning consent would eventually be given increasing the value x fold. I didn’t tell him I had no money. A few months later, knowing my passion for the marque, his next offer was a Silver Cloud. I still had no money. It was a bit strange his wanting to help our wealth.

Perhaps Mr.Vendor felt foolish thinking the developments taking place would magnify his failure to the local community? Bitter perhaps?

Our debts mounted but the expert valuations of our assets were always producing bigger and bigger numbers peaking at £1.7 million. We were not too worried but at the same time never jubilant. Wise enough to know things could go down as well as up or simply evaporate. We were conscious of our dependence on so many factors outside our control. Vectorial impulses pushing and shoving good will amongst others. And we made mistakes a plenty, trusting, misjudging, believing in people. Tensions, the spin off through opinion expressed and not agreed with; jokes not perceived as such as they can’t deal with a sense of humour because of their own built-in wall of prejudice; confidences abused.

Our happy balloon gradually deflated, which is what you'd expect after swimming in poison for twenty years trying to keep your head above.