Hotel is reviving after crisis

BUSINESS after foot-and-mouth has made a spectacular comeback in one part of Northurnberland. One of the county's oldest hotels has seen its best business for a quarter century.

Guest bookings and sales of food and drink for the past two months are at their highest for 25 years at the Tankerville Arms Hotel In Wooler.

Turnaround has come only three months after Anne Park, proprietor of the 17th Century coaching inn,

told the Queen in person about the problems confronting tourism businesses in Northumberland.
During the royal visit to North Northumberland the hotel was in the throes of one of its worst trading periods ever as foot-and-mouth restrictions took effect.

Now Cheviot hill walkers who cancelled earlier in the year are coming back in droves, and a lot more passing trade convinces Anne that many more people are holidaying at home now. "The transformation is almost -unbelievable," she said yesterday.