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The Dale Hotel came up for auction – yet again – and did not sell! Tony and Linda approached banks and all “traditional routes of financing” but couldn’t get the monies required to purchase the Dale. However, Jo Dixon, post mistress of the village amongst many other roles, teamed up with the Becks and together they raised the money through the local village investors to buy the dilapidated building! The villagers have now all been repaid but without them and the help and support of Allendale as a community, we could not have done it! We are proud to have developed the following parts of the Dale since 2014:

• 2014 – The Allendale Bunkhouse
• 2015 – The Dale Cottage
• 2017 – The Dale Townhouse
• 2019 – The Dale Manor

All that is left now (2019) is the part between the Dale Townhouse and The Dale Manor, which will be converted into two beautiful two-story flats for permanent rental.

Tony and Linda moved into Victoria House, the property next door to the Allendale Bunkhouse. They and were left wondering whatever would happen to The Dale… it was a place of local interest now, love-hated by many… Tony and Linda Beck (with Anja and Sam) moved out of Victoria House at to Hhigh Oustley Farm in 2019.

The building is now almost entirely veiled by the Virginia Creeper which started so small all those years ago, but was left unchallenged to roam across the building.

The Dale has been purchased by John Champ as a “landbank” to the frustration of many villagers and detriment of the building and appearance of the market place. A long saga continues of tried repossessions, failed auctions, bids and counter-bids – a decade in which the hotel fell into total disrepair, so much so, that not even local developers would “touch it with a barge pole”.

The Dale Hotel was in its last years of trading, fairly run down – but a central point in the village still for celebrations, accommodation and especially those affiliated with Sinderhope Riding Club stayed for “horsey holidays”.

Nothing much has changed in the past decades, but we believe that this was around the last time The Dale Hotel has been refurbished based on newspaper clippings and pages we found when pulling down walls and old plaster in 2014 and thereafter.

“The Dale” now incorporates what we now know as “The Dale Cottage”, which was used as a flower and laundry room, “The Dale Townhouse” which houses the hotel bar, then the main hotel and what we know as “The Allendale Bunkhouse” as a function room & event bar.

The Virginia Creeper is increasing its presence on the façade of the renamed “Dale Hotel” after being taken over by taken over by Connie Thompson and Margaret Simpson. The former shop shown in front view is what is now the Allendale Bunkhouse). Back then, it has been incorporated into the set up of the Hotel to give another function room and additional bedrooms above.

The grand opening ceremony of the “Fosters Temperance Hotel” after conversion of the stable blocks into accommodation and adding a full story in height to the property. To the left you can see what we now call “The Dale Townhouse” and to the right is a shop in what now houses the “Allendale Bunkhouse”.

You can just about make out the beginnings of the Virginia Creeper which will in the future cover the entire building.
Mary Jane and Isabella Forster retired from the Dale Hotel in 1920.

This is the earliest picture we could find featuring The Dale Hotel (not quite showing the Allendale Bunkhouse around the corner). The main property was a two and a half story building with adjoining stable. The house part was rendered and painted white.

To the right, you can see Edgars shop – now Victoria House and home to Tony and Linda Beck from 2010 until 2018, birthplace of their son Samuel James Beck – then The Kings Head and further along The Golden Lion.