Eco-friendly guest suites at the Alice Hawthorn pub are the latest stage of its remarkable revival

Nun Monkton is one of Yorkshire’s prettiest villages with the Alice Hawthorn, a much-loved local pub, at its heart. Named after a famous racehorse that galloped to glory by winning the Ascot Gold Vase, the Goodwood Cup and the Doncaster Cup in 1844, the Alice has proved as unbeatable as its namesake.

Just when it looked as though time was about to be called on the historic hostelry after a series of failed attempts to make it viable, a surprise buyer rode to the rescue.

Nun Monkton resident Kate Harpin let her heart rule her head when she bought the pub in 2013 with the sole intention of keeping her local alive.

Bookies would have put her chances at 100/1 at best but she beat the odds and turned it into a going concern. “To keep the Alice open as a cracking little local, I knew it would need to attract folk from surrounding villages and towns, so that the business could become properly sustainable,” says Kate.

The many improvements over the past seven years, including renovation, a bigger kitchen and a barn for private events, have helped attract a loyal following.

John and Claire Topham, who run the premises, ensure the food and service is top notch with entries in both the Good Food Guide and Michelin Guide and now Kate has delivered another major boost.

She brought in Angus Morrogh-Ryan, of De Matos Ryan Architects, to reconfigure and upgrade the existing guest rooms in the pub and to design new accommodation in the grounds with a brief to deliver something special and in keeping with the rural surroundings.

It took 20 months to complete with the final push from project manager Russell Pickering and York-based Gem Construction coinciding with the first lockdown.

The result is both subtle and spectacular with the new-build accommodation mirroring three agricultural buildings – one is a stable-style, the other looks like a field barn and the third an agricultural store. Together they house eight rooms in total.

“The pub is Grade II listed and the village is post-medieval so the design is sensitive to that. We also wanted to create low-carbon, low-environmental impact buildings,” says Kate.

The structural timbers in the new buildings are UK- grown Douglas fir. The exterior and some of the interior cladding is Siberian larch poplar plywood.

“The roofing is all in corrugated, galvanised steel by York-based Varla,” says Kate who added a large attenuation tank to deal with the increasing environmental problem of surface water drainage. She also invested heavily in an eco-friendly ground source heat pump to warm the new and the old buildings. The interiors in the new room in the garden are restful and understated, allowing the architectural detail to shine.

“One of my favourite parts are the clerestory mirrors in the bathroom, which the architect came up with. They give the impression of space beyond,” says Kate, who took charge of the decor and furnishings for the 12 guest rooms. Her aim was that they be “calm and uncluttered while exuding a kind of contemporary ease”.

She sourced the superking beds from Yorkshire-based Harrison Spinks as they are made using natural materials, including sheep’s wool. The headboards and curtains are in a mix of fabrics made from natural fibres, including wool and linen.

A trip to Chelsea Harbour yielded fabric designs from Christopher Farr Cloth and Kvadrat and the bedside lamps in the new-build rooms are by Anglepoise. All the rooms have names hand-painted by Brilliant Signs and there is an acid-etched steel map of Nun Monkton and its rivers designed by David Cliff and made by blacksmith James Wilkinson.

The art that will soon adorn the walls of the guest rooms and the pub is the result of another community-inspired gesture. Kate wanted to involve Nun Monkton Primary School in her project and so funded art teacher Georgie Radcliffe to run a series of lessons in printmaking for the children.

“I needed to buy some art and I wanted to support the school and the prints the children made are amazing. They each made one for me and a copy for themselves. The art they produced was the cherry on top of this project. Some will be used at the Alice and we might auction the rest for school funds,” says Kate, who has one last job to tick off her to-do list.

“I have just done the garden and now I want to plant an orchard and that’s it. The spend has been considerable but I didn’t want to cut costs at the expense of quality. I am here for the duration and everything that has been done should keep our village pub alive. That’s what matters.”

Useful Contacts

The Alice Hawthorn, Nun Monkton, North Yorkshire, www.thealicehawthorn.com; De Matos Ryan Architects, www.dematosryan.co.uk; Galvanised steel roofing by Varla, www.varla.co.uk; Gem Construction, www.gemcs.co.uk; The first-floor window design of a map of Nun Monkton and its rivers is by David Cliff, www.pressgreen.com; James Wilkinson, artisan blacksmith, www.jameswilkinsonblacksmith.co.uk

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