Resources from the web site of Well House Consultants on the subject of Well House Manor - project diary. We provide open source training course and business hotel accommodation in Melksham, Wiltshire, England

We first looked seriously at buying a property to offer delegate accommodation in late 2005, and we settled on No. 48, Spa Road Melksham - an Edwardian house that celebrates its centenary in 2006, and is set in 3/4 of an acre of gardens just a few hundred yards from the Town Centre. Purchase was complete at the very end of May, 2006 and then major refurbishment work started ... this index page provides links to pictures and stories as we go along - "behind the scenes" if you like.

Articles and tips on this subject		updated
4739	A year of changes for Lisa and Graham Ellis, and Well House Our IT training business has been running at Well House Manor (48 Spa Road) since 2006, and during that time has grown in all sorts of unexpected directions - into a guest house, an event venue for outside customers, a museum, and a base for the local Community Rail Partnership. With changing metrics ...	2017-05-28 (longer)
4012	A course is not just for a year - its for a career "Hi Graham, I Attended your perl class in 1999 and I still use your training notes as a reference. It was an excellent course and in those days you used SUN IPX type clients in the training class from what I remember. I have never looked back. I am glad you are still going strong." - NK It's good - ...	2013-02-21 (longer)
3968	Expecting nothing, but prepared for anything Last Septmeber, Well House Manor was recorded for the "Four in a Bed" series on Channel 4, where 4 different sets of hotel / B&B owners go round, visit each others establishments, critically review, and pay just what they think each of the places is worth for their overnight stay. With a wide variety ...	2013-01-12
3963	National TV - Melksham - 9th January 2013, Pre-alert. In the early Autumn, Lisa and I were recorded for "Four in a Bed" ... the TV show where four different sets of B&B owners throw open their doors and take turns to stay with one another - and pay what they consider fair for their stay. The shows will be aired on Channel 4, from Monday 7th January ...	2012-12-29
3585	The changing Hotel and Bed and Breakfast business in Melksham It still surprises me how quickly things change in the hotel and catering business. But I suppose it shouldn't. When we opened our training centre in Melksham in 2000 there were numerous places that course delegates could stay, and were suitable. But by 2005 that had shrunk to a handful, to such an ...	2012-11-04
3645	Keeping our hotel looking like new, by using our gained experience In the hotel business, we have busier and quieter periods, and after a busy few weeks (guest wise) it looks like we're a little quieter (guest wise) over the next couple of weeks - so we're taking the opportunity to redo the breakfast room, and to put a fresh coat of paint on the bedrooms and public ...	2012-11-04
3847	The Accidental Hotelier Our guests often ask us why we're called "Well House Manor". And they ask why we're an IT training centre with some rather nice accommdation tied in with it, as they find it a rather unusual combination. Let me tell you the story. Well House Consultants Ltd is a company I set up in 1995, to deliver ...	2012-11-04
720	Planning a hotel refurb - an example of a Gant chart in PHP We're planning for a grand opening in the Autumn of Well House Manor, and we've a very great deal to do ahead of time. A sound building, 100 years old, is showing the signs of age in a frumpy decor, an access that's suitable for the horse and cart era, and a garden where the Leylandia towers above ...	2011-06-27
3014	Well House Manor - the next six years As part of my "3000 post" series, I've looked ahead at where I expect training techniques to go in the next six years, and what we'll be teaching in the next six years. What about the hotel business? You might expect the hotel business to be staid - to be stationary - but if you do, you'll be surprised. ...	2010-11-08 (longest)
1975	Well House Manor Hotel - on plan for 2009 business guests Three years ago, we were contemplating the "Well House Manor" project. An offer had been made on "The Old Manor" B&B with a view to turning it into delegate and businessman accommodation for our courses, and had been accepted. It was (at that stage) subject to the inevitably slow property sale cycle ...	2009-08-31
931	Before and After - Well House Manor Do I want to show people, proudly, all the works we've done on Well House Manor and how it's now such a different place? Of course I do. But at the same time I don't want to discourage visitors who happen upon our web site and see the old rather than the new. So ... for those of you who are interested, ...	2009-01-01
550	2006 - Making business a pleasure "Making Business a Pleasure" - a spoken logo for Well House Consultants for 2006. Whether you're attending a course, staying as a guest at Well House Manor, working for us, or simply visiting our web site, we want you to enjoy the experience. We don't know exactly what 2006 will bring, but we have ...	2008-09-27
555	Hotel novelties We're studying good and bad hotel practises to that we know what's on offer ... you may have read a little about the Well House Manor project already on "The Horse's Mouth", and although it will be neither a hotel nor a B&B we can learn plenty from establishments of both types - especially those ...	2008-06-10
902	Brand new hotel and training centre, Melksham Our first full week at Well House Manor - and what a week it was! The hotel opened for guests last week, and this week for our public courses. Initial reviews all excellent - "Accommodation excellent; I can't praise the organisation and course highly enough" writes one delegate. If you've found this ...	2008-02-17
1211	A lot has happened in a year It's a year ago to this day that we completed on the purchase of No. 48, Spa Road, Melksham which had been running for a number of years as "The Old Manor" B&B. A lot has changed in a year! We undertook a major upgrade and refurbishment in the first four months turning a tired but lovely old building ...	2007-05-31
1098	Three big events - TWSW, Business of the year and the police The last day and a bit - some quick pictures .... Wiltshire Business of the Year Awards, Swindon, Friday evening. OK - I admit it - Tuxedos and big formal dinners are not my thing, so the very official award ceremony wasn't something I was looking forward to. I had guessed, realistically and as ...	2007-03-08
1087	Telling a story in different ways The same story can be told in many ways ... and we're telling our story a lot of ways just at the moment. Yesterday was very much a "write the story the way xxxx wants to see it" day - here are three articles written by myself and Lisa in the last 24 hours. 1. When we opened a niche computer software ...	2007-02-20 (longer)
1069	Rail trouble forced me to buy hotel .... that's a headline in Monday's "Metro" paper, over a story about how we came to open Well House Manor. "Graham Ellis, 52 was facing ruin ..." it says. Well - not quite, though I suppose that the business would have been severely damaged if we had done nothing at all to offer viable alternatives to ...	2007-02-08
941	Snagging Here we are, some 7 weeks after opening and we've still got a few "snags" on the electrics ... it seems that the ground here is a bit damp, and the uplighters are getting submerged, so there's some work to be redone. Ah, yes, you have to expect odd snags like that and for the majority of the works I ...	2006-11-24
932	A tale of a wee wall When does making a wall wee make it turn into it not being a wee wall any longer? Walking home on Friday night, after most of the pubs had shut, I note a chap a few hundred yards in front of me. I thought nothing more of it, and he disappeared into some gateway or other and I carried on walking. Catching ...	2006-11-23
894	Where quality costs less We've tried to buy locally where we can in our refit of Well House Manor - and that's meant first Melksham, then Wiltshire before looking further afield. Some excellent suppliers have come through, but there's some bare faced cheekiness in some suppliers. "Where quality costs less" said the tag on ...	2006-10-15
890	Open The end of an exhausting day .... and the first guests are installed in Well House Manor. The term "cutting it fine" comes to mind as carpet bits were being cleared on the landing and the carpet layers just leaving for the day as the day ... but all so worthwhile as I saw / heard the customer's initial ...	2006-10-09
881	Coming together. Every day, things seem closer to being done at Well House Manor - rooms getting finished, electrical second fit proceeeding quickly now, painted. Bathrooms coming into place. Outside, the work site is turning into a lawn. Deliveries are coming daily at both "48" and "404" and we're on course for being ...	2006-09-29
858	From the Manor written This morning, my daily update is written for the first time from Well House Manor. Our hotel opens in a month's time, with a C course followed by a C++ course in the first week we're running, and a MySQL course followed by a Python course in the second week. And rather than the gentle opening we expected, ...	2006-09-12
862	4 weeks to go A month to go ... and there's still a lot of work to be done at Well House Manor. And yet so much progress happens and suddenly things are starting to fall into place. Today and Friday, I'll be on "Office days" catching up on the mountains of paperwork and calls, and helping make sure that nothing ...	2006-09-11
855	Fitting our bathrooms It's a day to show you what's going on behind the scenes at Well House Manor - there are so many things to consider when refitting a hotel and thank goodness for modern electronic devices to help us. Picture 1 of a series of 5. Choosing where to place the towel rack for spare towels in bathroom 1. With ...	2006-09-04
844	Hotel, Melksham, Wiltshire "When you're advertising your hotel, DON'T list out all the features such as the fact that all rooms are en-suite - people EXPECT that as standard these days" so came the recent advise from a marketing guru. He's probably right ... so I'm going to tell you today what's different about Well House Manor, ...	2006-08-30
816	Above the parapit, Well House Manor I've not been 'going on' about the progress at Well House Manor, as the building projects of others can bore the living daylights out of me if mentioned frequently, and I'm sure that applies to you too. However, I will stick my neck above the parapit on the subject today and tell you it's going well, ...	2006-07-28
776	Naming Rooms What should we number or name the two rooms that we'll have available for training, meetings, conferences as Well House Manor? Normally, I'm not a great fan of names (and indeed bedrooms will be numbered), but somehow "A" and "B" or "1" and "2" don't seem right, and "the training room" and "the meeting ...	2006-06-24
756	Seeing the bricks for the trees "The Old Manor" was a secluded house, set amongst trees that had become overgrown with time. In a few areas, what could only be described as a jungle comprising both beautiful classic trees and fast-growing pines had taken over and was making the property dark and gloomy, and wasn't best pleasing some ...	2006-06-11
571	Well House Manor The background - we've been running open source training courses in Melksham for more than 5 years, and we foresee ourselves doing so into the future. We love the town, we have a good customer base, and the work is great fun as well as being work. Being in a niche market, our delegates travel far and ...	2006-06-09
744	We can offer a room, but we can't operate on a dog Our first weekend, probably of many, working on "Well House Manor". The previous owner finally completed her move out on Thursday, 1st June, and we had vacant possession from that afternoon. We wish her all the very best for the future, and appreciate her gestures such as the flowers left to wish us ...	2006-06-06
677	Sympathetic development It's all systems go on 48 Spa Road ... we'll be taking over "The Old Manor" on 31st May. Through the summer, we'll be thoroughly updating both inside and out, and we'll be opening in the Autumn as Well House Manor - a hotel specialising in accommodation for business visitors to Melksham. Well House ...	2006-06-05
721	Residential Why "residential"? We've spent this weekend planing Well House Manor - the facilities and services we should be offering in our new business hotel for Melksham, and that word kept cropping up. Well House Manor should be a home for our business travellers away from home - somewhere that's their residence ...	2006-06-05
739	The eye Today is the eye of the storm. And I feel a strange calm. In Saudi Arabia, I run the last day of Perl training that I'm giving here and start for home. In the UK, we complete on the purchase of Well House Manor. ...	2006-05-31 (short)