West Layton Manor: Boutique Yorkshire hotel that was the location of Victorian 'locked room' mystery goes up for sale after planning battle with neighbours

Mr Sharpe had to apply for retrospective permission in 2023 as the hotel had been operating since 2015 without consent being in place, though Richmondshire Council had approved a licence for its bar.

The stately home near Ravensworth, built for Victorian mining magnate John Easton in the 1870s, is split into four properties, with Mr Sharpe himself occupying the old coach-house. No 2 was previously in residential use, though it had been run as a hotel in the 1990s.

West Layton Manor was the centre of a ‘locked room’ mystery surrounding the death of Easton’s sister Emma in the 1880s. Emma had recently rowed with John when she was found dead at the house, and after her brother’s death just a year later, their sister Emily inherited the whole estate. Emily lived until the age of 95 and left a vast fortune when she died in 1913.

Emma, who was 36 and unmarried, was 40 years younger than John, who servants heard ordering her up to her room after the disagreement. She stayed there for a week, with staff bringing her meals up, until one maid found her dead one day. The door had to be levered open by a local joiner. It had been locked from the inside with the key still there, but an inquest questioned why the joiner had been sent for when there were men working at the house who could have broken the door down.

A doctor had been treating Emma for indigestion and nervous disability, and she was practically a recluse, which left her with poor mental health. It was thought she might have taken too much of a sedative and painkilling drug she had been prescribed, though a postmortem found she had been suffocated.

The coroner described John Easton’s neglect as ‘shameful’ but ruled there was no evidence to prove she had been intentionally suffocated. He died months later aged 76.

The six-bedroom, three-storey apartment has three reception rooms and is on the market with Irvings of Richmond for £925,000. The one-bedroom coach-house is available subject to separate negotiation. The agents have advertised that it is suitable for conversion back into a family home.

Mr Sharpe, an airline pilot, and his partner Mark Devlin acquired West Layton Manor in 2019.