Champneys

Champneys /ˈtʃæmpniz/ is an English country house and its associated estate near Tring, Hertfordshire. The mansion is run as a destination spa by a business using "Champneys" as the brand name for a group of spa resorts and day spas.

For other uses, see Champneys (disambiguation).
Champneys
General information
Town or cityTring, Hertfordshire
CountryUnited Kingdom

History

The earliest record of an estate associated with the Champneys name is in 1307. It appears in the Tring manor court rolls for 1514. It was owned by successive landowning families in the Wigginton, Hertfordshire and surrounding area between the 14th and 19th centuries, although for a short period around 1535 it is recorded as owned by Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury.[1]

The grounds and original house were inherited in 1871 by the Rev. Arthur Sutton Valpy. He replaced the original building by the current French Second Empire styled house built in 1874 which stood in extensive grounds.[2] In 1900, Champneys was sold to Lady Rothschild;[3][4] the family had owned nearby Tring Park Mansion since 1872.[5]

In 1925 Stanley Lief (1890–1962), a pioneer in the field of naturopathy, bought Champneys, converting it into a Nature Cure resort which he ran from the 1930s for about 20 years.[6] Champneys at Tring continued as a health resort with varying degrees of success, latterly under the ownership of a Middle Eastern consortium, until it was bought by Stephen Purdew in 2002.[7] The house with associated buildings is set in landscaped grounds of around 200 acres (0.81 km2).[8]

The business group
Eastwell Manor, Ashford, Kent

Champneys is the brand name of a destination spa group, comprising four spa resorts, two hotels and six day spas owned by the Purdew family. The first spa in the group was Henlow Grange.[9] Others include Eastwell Manor and Mottram Hall.[10][11][12]

In 2004, £150,000 was raised for Breast Cancer Care, Tommy's Charity and the Disability Foundation were supported in 2006, raising a combined sum of £100,000. The Champneys Charitable Foundation was registered with the Charity Commission on 31 May 2006.[13]

In July 2011, Sir Paul Stephenson, Metropolitan Police Commissioner, resigned over a stay at Champneys Tring, part of which had been a gift from Stephen Purdew,[14] and in an interview in The Guardian in August the same year, Purdew explained that certain clients receive discounts on the basis of their celebrity status or if they are journalists or hold high-ranking positions in public office: "These rugby players are paying, but they're coming on a concession rate because it's just making the place buzz. We do that with actors and journalists and dignitaries. It makes Champneys 'The Place'."[15]

In 2020, The Observer gave Champneys an award for the year's "worst customer service" after it denied customers refunds for bookings cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, despite a contractual clause guaranteeing refunds for cancellations due to exceptional circumstances, then closed its phone lines.[16]

Television

In 2014, Champneys Tring was the subject of an ITV documentary by Richard Macer.[17]

References
  1. "Champneys Estate, Tring, Hertfordshire". Rothschild family papers. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  2. Rothschild-shire: the wider fate of UK country houses mirrored in a family (1/3), accessed 18 January 2015
  3. British History on Line -Wigginton, Hertfordshire, Accessed 18 January 2015
  4. Hertfordshire Genealogy Champneys, Accessed 18 January 2015
  5. "Tring Park estate, Hertfordshire". Rothschild family papers. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  6. see Naturopathy in the UK on the website of The General Council and Register of Naturopaths, http://www.naturopathy.org.uk/history.asp
  7. "Stephen Purdew". Start-ups. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
  8. "Champneys moves to high street". The Times. 17 September 2006. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  9. Purdew, Dorothy (2011). The Long Road to Champneys. Infinite Ideas Ltd. ISBN 978-1906821500.
  10. Price, Chris (25 October 2016). "Champneys to buy Eastwell Manor in Ashford". Kent Online. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
  11. Harmer, Janet (1 October 2018). "Cheshire's Mottram Hall snapped by Champneys spa resort company". The Caterer. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
  12. "Champneys Henlow Limited". Companies House. Retrieved 17 September 2021. Subsidiaries are listed towards the end of each "Group of companies' accounts" document, for example page 37 in the 30 April 2020 report.
  13. 1114429 - CHAMPNEYS CHARITABLE FOUNDATION Charity framework Publisher Charity Commission, Accessed 26 September 2018
  14. Champneys: the spa that helped secure Sir Paul Stephenson's fate Publisher The Guardian 18 July 2011, Accessed 18 January 2015
  15. The networker who made Champneys' name The Guardian Published 11 August 2012, Accessed 18 January 2015
  16. Tims, Anna (27 December 2020). "In the year of Covid, the awards for worst customer service go to..." The Observer. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  17. Raeside, Julia (11 July 2014). "Champneys; Black Market Britain: Undercover Sting – TV review". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 March 2020.

51.77106°N 0.63436°W / 51.77106; -0.63436

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