Lancaster riverside pub, hotel and restaurant goes on market for nearly £1m

Golden Ball Hotel at Snatchems in Morecambe. Photo by Jack Cordingley from JCDrones

The Golden Ball at Snatchems is up for sale after undergoing extensive refurbishment by its current owner, Stephen Hunt.

A former staff sergeant with the Royal Engineers who served in Bosnia, Stephen bought the pub for just under £200,000 in 2011 and moved back home from Spain to do it up.

Since then he has spent more than £400,000 on five new hotel suites and three luxury camping pods on the site in Lancaster Road, created a new £250,000 conservatory dining area overlooking the Lune, and built a stage, outside bar and kids’ play area to the rear and side of the building.

The Golden Ball Hotel. Snatchems.
Owner Stephen Hunt in the new upstairs restaurant overlooking the River Lune. — The Golden Ball Hotel. Snatchems. Owner Stephen Hunt in the new upstairs restaurant overlooking the River Lune.

“I bought it to get it back on its feet and to run it as a family venue run by a family,” he said.

“My son has gone into IT and my daughter is wanting to start her own family and does not think a pub is the best place whilst her children are babies or infants.

“That just leaves me and at 60 this year I feel I have done my bit in the hospitality industry, 20 years of having limited free time and working when everyone else is partying has finally caught up with me.

“I want to do some travelling whilst I still can.”

Stephen also reassured friends and customers that he wouldn’t be up and leaving just yet, and that he may consider leasing the pub rather than selling it.

There has been an inn on the site since 1650,

In 1910 William Mitchell bought the pub and it was run as a tenanted house for 100 years, Mitchells of Lancaster being the landlords.

In early 2010 the last tenants left and the company could not find anyone to run the pub so it was closed and put up for sale, and Stephen bought it in 2011.

The Golden Ball is listed on the Chartered Surveyors website Fleurets described as and “18th Century Historic Inn with stunning riverside views, traditional bar (50), extended modern restaurant (60), five luxury en-suite letting rooms in a separate building, three luxury camping pods, a car park for circa 55 vehicles, a large outdoor patio and a beer garden and play area with outdoor bar.”