Bramshaw Golf Club and Bell Inn bought by Stellar Asset Management
A HISTORIC New Forest golf club and pub have been sold to a specialist tax investment firm after being put on the market for £4m.
Bramshaw Golf Club and The Bell Inn – which had been relisted in June last year – have been bought by Stellar Asset Management for an undisclosed price.
The firm already has a portfolio of UK sports venues, including Paultons Golf Centre at Ower.
Both Bramshaw sites will be managed as part of Stellar's inheritance tax portfolio. It will oversee the properties alongside its partner, Ben Blackburn Golf.
Stellar pledged that both the golf club and the inn will undergo a number of "considered refurbishments".
Jonathan Gain, Stellar Asset Management chief executive, said: "This is an exciting space for us, and the popularity of both courses to members and visitors offers great potential for our investors.
"We are incredibly excited to welcome Bramshaw Golf Club and The Bell Inn into our portfolio of leisure properties and we are looking forward to enhancing the potential of the golf course, clubhouse facilities and the inn for the benefit of members and visitors."
The Grade 2 listed Bell Inn at Brook had been owned by the Crosthwaite-Eyre family for more than 250 years and won a number of accolades including an AA four-star rating. It has 28 bedrooms and can cater for 100 seated covers.
The adjoining Bramshaw Golf Club features the Forest course, which was built around 1865 and is the oldest in Hampshire. The Manor course opened in 1972.
The complex was first put on the market in 2018 for £4.5m by Robert Crosthwaite-Eyre, the brother of Oliver, the former national park authority chair and former Official Verderer.
It failed to sell, however, and when it was relisted on the market last year the asking price had dipped.
Stellar is an inheritance tax and estate planning specialist firm formed in 2007. Its website says its directors have developed it into one of the leading investment houses in the market and at one time it had £3.5bn of assets under management.
Ben Blackburn, of Ben Blackburn Golf, said: "We are delighted to have completed the purchase of these two highly regarded properties which exude character and are brimming with potential, thanks to their fantastic location in one of the most beautiful parts of the country.
"We are also extremely fortunate to be taking over a business that has been well man-aged by the previous owners and I’d like to thank them for everything they have done and wish them the very best for the future."
