The couple who can stay in for a night out at the Ritz

But when John and Cal Hayden bought a house there they felt the area lacked a couple of essential amenities, so they came up with an ambitious plan to plug the gaps.

The couple’s beautiful period home now boasts its own pub, The Warter Tap, along with The Ritz, a sensational Art Deco-style cinema.

The property, made perfect for work, rest and play, is up for sale for £1.5m and will appeal to those who love to entertain in style.

“Warter is a great estate village but it has no pub so we decided to create one at home in one of the outbuildings,” said John.

He and Cal commissioned a 48ft x17ft American oak bar with backlit stained glass from Elland-based salvage and reproduction specialist Andy Thornton’s. They also imported a baby grand piano from the US that can play itself, and for those who like to pot black, there is a full-size
snooker table.

The Warter Tap is used for entertaining friends and neighbours and has had some well-known patrons, including singers Maddy Prior, Barbara Dickson and Midge Ure, who came to work with musician and composer Troy Donockley.

“Troy is my brother and he used to live in the cottage we have here so we often had musicians rehearse in the bar,” said Cal, who designed the adjoining cinema, which is modelled on an Art Deco picture house in her home town of Workington, Cumbria.

She said: “I have always been a movie fan but I didn’t want a cinema room, I wanted a proper Art Deco cinema like the one we went to as children.”

The Ritz’s opulent style is a tribute to the 1930s picture palaces that sprang up in the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Going to the “pictures” to see Fred and Ginger dancing cheek to cheek and Al Jolson sing “Mammy”, while marvelling at impossibly glamorous stars like Garbo and Dietrich, provided an escape from the desperate poverty and difficult living conditions of the depression. When the lights went up the decor didn’t disappoint either. It was pure luxury with murals, gilding and sumptuous scarlet velvets and silks.

The plush, 30s-style reclining chairs in Cal’s reproduction Ritz took months to source and were eventually found in Miami.

Cal, a talented artist and maker, made the curtains after hunting down the finest silk velvet to create the perfect concertina effect. She also designed the ticket booth and made a life-like usherette from papier mache before making her mannequin a uniform.

Her painting skills were used to create the cloud effect ceiling with the help of portable scaffolding that John bought for her birthday.

The cinema gets plenty of use. Cal has shared it with villagers by organising winter cinema days for older members of the community.

“I love it. For me there is something really good about watching black and white movies in an old 1930s cinema. The film I’ve watched most is Hitchcock’s Rebecca,” she says.

The couple, who are moving closer to John’s job in London, will miss Ludhill House when they sell. They completely renovated the property after buying it in 1993.

The house has five double bedrooms, five bathrooms, plus a gym and a large studio above the garage. It also comes with a three-bedroom cottage.

Its sale is bound to attract attention thanks to its famous location. Hockney put the village on the map with his painting Bigger Trees Near Warter.

He spent months in and around the village and was a familiar sight sitting at his easel in all weathers. It’s a shame he didn’t know about the Warter Tap, say the Haydens. He would have been more than welcome to pop in for a pint or a warming tot of brandy.

Ludhill House is for sale with joint agents Savills, tel: 01904 617820 and Carter Jonas, tel: 01904 558200.