The Old Swan in Harrogate in £4m refurbishment

The Old Swan hotel in Harrogate is to undergo a £4m revamp following news that it is to be managed by Classic Lodges.

The hotel - where Agatha Christie once famously hid away for 10 days in 1926 - will add 25 bedrooms and a treatment spa to its current total of 136. Its event and meeting facilities will also be upgraded.

Classic Lodges, which announced that it was taking on the 200-year-old hotel which was managed by MacDonald Resorts earlier this week, now has nine hotels in its portfolio.

Others include: the Hickstead hotel in West Sussex, Bagden Hall in West Yorkshire, and Grovefield House hotel in Windsor.

Classic Lodges is owned by Paragon Hotels, which is also the owner of the Old Swan.

Agatha Christie famously stayed at the Old Swan for several days following a quarrel with her husband. Her disappearance prompted a national search, which even saw Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, take a discarded glove of Christie's to a medium to try and trace her.

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