Mansion wedding venue in Swanmore doing well (From Hampshire Chronicle)

Mansion wedding venue in Swanmore doing well

10:28am Tuesday 18th October 2011 in Bishop's Waltham

A COUPLE whose home featured on a Channel 4 television programme have been back on our screens six months on.

Will and Rebecca Dobson appeared on Channel 4’s Country House Rescue back in April in a bid to get help with turning their property Hill Place in Swanmore into a successful events venue.

However, they have since been revisited by the programme at the end of last month to see how they are getting on.

The house hosted 19 weddings this year and 20 are already booked in for 2012. This is up from eight held there in 2010 when Will, 34, and Rebecca, 33, first started hiring the house out.

Hill Place is also being hired out for house parties, corporate events and tours.

The couple inherited the property from Will’s grandmother, but were faced with costs of £50,000 a year to run the Georgian villa – more than their salaries combined.

The 21-room grade two listed property, which the couple estimated as worth between £3m to £3.5m, takes 16 hours to clean.

Rebecca said costs had gone up because of extra staffing and they were facing a £22,000 restoration of the morning room ceiling, but they were covering costs.

She said: “It’s going really well. The house is paying for itself which is fantastic.

“It has taken off, we seem to have hit a niche market, we actually provide a home that happens to do weddings and parties and that really seems to hit the mark.”