Hotel dives in to try to solve pool riddle
Bosses at a landmark hotel in Shropshire have appealed for help as they try to piece together a mystery of the past.
Pictures of the Buckatree Hall Hotel from the 1930s show a large lake or pond at the site, which sits at the foot of the Wrekin.
While today there is still an idyllic pond, overlooked by balconies from rooms and used as a backdrop for wedding pictures, bosses have been left scratching their heads as to what happened to the large steps and brickwork surrounding the lake, which was larger than the one currently there.
General manager Wayne Jenson said: "The nostalgic pictures were kindly supplied to us by the National Trust and historians at Sunnycroft.
"The pictures show former owner Offley Lander and his wife Muriel, along with their daughters Rachel and Joan, rowing in the lake. They lived at the hall as a private residence before moving to Sunnycroft in 1943.
"We looked again at these pictures as we celebrated four years as a family-run hotel in September, but on closer reflection we realised there was a gap in our knowledge of the building and more specifically what happened to the large lake."
Claire Reeves, house and visitor services manager at Sunnycroft, confirmed that the pictures had been shared with the Buckatree to show the history of the building.
She said: "The original pictures are in our archive here. The copyright belongs to the National Trust and they are genuine.
"On the back of one of the pictures Joan Lander has written 'Daddy in the Buckatree pool in 1935' and she was very good at keeping diaries and recording things like that.
"In these pictures of the family rowing you can see the Wrekin in the background so they are of the Buckatree site, but whether we can find out what happened to the original pond depends if anything has been recorded anywhere.
"We have many pictures as we are in the process of cataloguing the archive here."
There were changes when the site was transformed from a private residence into a hotel and country club in the 1950s - it opened in October 1959 - but managers and historians have not been able to find out what happened to the pool.
Anyone with any information on the mystery disappearance of the large pond should contact the Buckatree Hall Hotel on 01952 641 821.
