Solberge Hall: Employee charged with stealing over £1,000 from Yorkshire country house wedding venue

Andrew Morris, 26, will make his first appearance at York Magistrates Court this week in connection with the alleged theft at Solberge Hall at South Otterington, near Northallerton, in August last year.

Morris, of Houghton-le-Spring near Sunderland, is accused of stealing a total of £1,024.80 over a 27-day period while employed by the hotel.

Solberge Hall was purchased two months after the offending by Wharfedale Grange, a luxury weddings operator which already owns a number of venues in the Leeds and Harrogate area.

The family-run business announced that they would eventually rename the Georgian manor Wharfedale Country House following upgrade work.

Solberge Hall was built in 1824 by the Hutton family, and in the first half of the 20th century was owned by steel baron and inventor Benjamin Talbot. It was sold after his death in the 1940s, and became the North Riding Police College, the training school for North Yorkshire Police until the force disposed of the building in 1980s.

It then became a hotel, but struggled and went into administration in 2011. It was sold in 2015 to Classic Lodges.