Savoy staff team up at Newbury Manor

Two former Savoy Group staff have been reunited at the newly opened Newbury Manor hotel, near the Berkshire town.

The two are Stuart Johnson, who joined the hotel's board as chief executive in November, and chef-director David Sharland, who runs the property's 70-seat Sharlands restaurant which opened separately from the hotel in July.

Johnson worked at various Savoy Group hotels but his last full-time job was as director and general manager of Cliveden, in Taplow. He left Cliveden this January, when he was replaced by Ross Stevenson from the Royal Crescent hotel in Bath.

"I felt it was time to move on and do other things," said Johnson, who has been working as a consultant in England and North America. He said he was delighted to be working again with David Sharland, who was the Savoy Grill's head chef before moving to the Vineyard at Stockcross as executive head chef.

Also in the Newbury team are sommelier Martin Schofield (also from the Vineyard), operations director Adrian Wiley from nearby Highclere Castle, and general manager Nick Bonell, from Sketchley Grange in Hinckley, Leicestershire.

The Grade II-listed hotel has undergone a £2m refurbishment since first-time hotelier Bob Rae bought the run-down Millwaters hotel in April.