Swindon-based Arkell’s Brewery has continued its investment programme in its estate to meet growing demand for pubs with rooms.
Work starts this week on a £1.4m transformation of The White Hart at Stratton St Margaret, Swindon, which will add a 24-room accommodation extension.
It is the latest investment in quality hotel-type rooms at its pubs by the family-owned business and comes two years after it added a 10-room boutique hotel to The Sun Inn at Coate Water. 
More than half of Arkell’s 100 pubs and hotels now have accommodation attached – a total of 500-plus bedrooms across its entire estate spanning Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Hampshire.
Brewery director, George Arkell, said: “There is an acknowledged lack of good hotel room space in Swindon, particularly on the north side of the town, and an increasing number of people preferring the cosier atmosphere of a pub with rooms.
“The White Hart at Stratton is the ideal pub for rooms. It’s at a major Swindon gateway site, the car park is large and there is ample space.”
Arkell’s bought The White Hart in 1878 – some 35 years after the brewery started – and extended it substantially in the 1920s. Nearly 100 years’ later, the pub is still going strong.
George Arkell added: “Ongoing investment in our pubs is essential if we are to maintain standards and provide customers with the warm welcome they expect.
“Over half our estate of pubs can now offer accommodation, which provides a valuable added revenue stream for our landlords as well as increased facilities for visitors to Swindon and the surrounding area.”
Swindon building contractor Edmont is carrying out the construction work at The White Hart.
Pictured: George Arkell at the controls of a digger with, from left Craig Titchener of Arkells and Craig Morton and Les Smith from builders Edmont
