Lancashire Evening Telegraph

The new rooms at the Inn - Refit ready for Queen and county.

A renowned East Lancashire hotel has finished a facelift worth more than £1.5million – ahead of an expected visit from the Queen.

The 14th century Inn at Whitewell, near Clitheroe, has now added a new bar, dining room and six bedrooms, which brings its total to 23 rooms.

It comes after royal sources last week revealed the Queen could be visiting the venue for a private lunch on her forthcoming visit to East Lancashire.

The extensive work has been ongoing following a disaster in 1985, which saw the kitchen slip into the nearby River Hodder. But bosses at the Inn called the accident a “blessing in disguise” and set to work on changing the venue.

After work to stabilise the building against any further slipping, the new bedrooms, three on the upper floor and three on the lower ground floor, now look out on to the river.

Charles Bowman, Managing Director, remained tight-lipped about the Queen’s reported visit.

But he said: "A hotel without a kitchen isn’t particularly helpful. We had to stop the building slipping any further and a lot of underpinning was required. It enabled us to look at the business in a different way. The kitchen was on a prime spot of the riverside. It has a fantastic aspect of the water ad having it there had blocked any future development of its prime aspect. It was a blessing in disguise. The Inn used to be road-centric and now it is river-centric."

The venue was once home to Walter Urswick, keeper of the King’s Forest of Bowland. In the 1700’s it was turned into a coaching inn, but today it has a reputation as an award-winning restaurant and hotel.

An art gallery and wine merchant also share the historic premises. The Inn employs 50 full-time and 20 part time employees, has a turnover of £2.3m, which should rise to £3m over the next twelve months.

The work was carried out thanks to a £1.3m loan from Yorkshire Bank, through its Preston-based Financial Solutions Centre.