An award-winning guesthouse in the Derbyshire Dales that has retained many features from its earlier incarnation as a magistrate’s house and police station has been put on the market.
The Old Lock-Up, complete with cells and a Gothic chapel, is located in the Saxon market town of Wirksworth, 15 miles from Derby and near the M1.
It is one of four B&B finalists in the 2006 Excellence in England Awards.
The traditional grit stone building was constructed in 1842 as a magistrate’s house and served as a police station for 100 years until 1952, with DH Lawrence and his German wife among its most famous visitors.
It now offers five luxury bedrooms across three detached properties, with two in the Magistrates House, two more in the Coach-House and the fifth in the near 200-year-old Grade II-listed Gothic Chapel (which has planning permission for use as a holiday home).
The dining room (the old prisoner reception) can seat 10 for breakfast or parties of up to 26 and there is also a terraced barbecue area with pergola outside.
Other facilities include the dining room (the old prisoner reception), the guest lounge (the former sergeant’s room), and the house lounge (once the sergeant’s kitchen) while the catering kitchen is a converted bike shed.
Two former cells with vaulted ceilings have become bathrooms, the cell for arrested drunks is now the downstairs bar and another cell, now an office, has been used as a themed single bedroom to give a taste of convict life.
Knight Frank is seeking offers of around £725,000 for the freehold on behalf of Tony and Vivien Wheeler.
By Angela Frewin