WHEN John Cocker decided he wanted to open a hotel near Kielder Water, he found the ideal property - a grand Victorian country house with extensive grounds on the banks of the North Tyne near Bellingham.
The fact that Riverdale Hall was the infrequently-used country retreat of a peer of the realm was no obstacle to this entrepreneurial Yorkshireman. He knocked on the big front door, was undeterred when his lordship initially said there were no plans to sell and, using his genial persuasion, he eventually sealed the deal.
Twenty-five years on, John and his Danish wife, Iben, can look back on a business venture that is now reaping them the deserved rewards from a quarter century of hard work.
Having run a successful pub and restaurant in the Kielder area, John admits that he underestimated the challenge of starting in the hotel business. He said: “We struggled for many years and almost didn't make it. I was very naïve in thinking that a hotel could be an overnight success like a pub or restaurant, but it takes a long time to build up a reputation.
The award-winning team of chefs at Riverdale Hall.
“Fortunately, Keith Floyd came along, liked our food and put us on TV. Then he was followed by the Two Fat Ladies, and we started seeing well-known people here like Rowan Atkinson, rock musician Brian Johnson, Brendan Healey and numerous international footballers and cricketers.”
Testifying to the fact that Riverdale Hall's six-strong team of chefs - led by head chefs Iben and Stuart Naylor - really know their business, the hotel's reception area displays an impressive collection of awards including AA Rosettes, RAC Merit Awards and a Les Routiers Gold Plate Award which was presented by Clarissa Dixon-Wright.
With some satisfaction, John said: “We pride ourselves on using local fish, game, vegetables and meat whenever possible. Our restaurant has probably won more awards than any other hotel in Northumberland over the last 25 years, and we are the only hotel in the north to have won the Les Routiers award.”
But perhaps almost as important as its good food to the hotel's success is its strong sporting links, a feature which is hardly surprising to those aware that John, who played water polo for Yorkshire and professional football for Halifax Town, is also a cricket and golf addict.
Few hotels can boast of having a cricket pitch in their grounds, and this ensures annual visits from up to 20 cricket teams who compete either in week-long cricket festivals involving the Riverdale Spitfires, the Northumberland league team sponsored by the hotel, or in friendlies against the Riverdale Hall team.
Proprietor John Cocker on the hotel lawn.
Despite reaching that senior age for a cricketer of three score years, John still plays for the Spitfires, and he just happens to mention the fact that he was second in the team's batting averages on their recent cricketing tour to Sri Lanka.
The sporting interests of many guests at the hotel, not to mention its owner, are also well served by its location just across the road from Bellingham Golf Course's first fairway, although John wryly observed that last year was a bad golfing year for him personally, with his wife - a latecomer to the game - achieving a lower handicap mark than her spouse.
With the Pennine Way travelling past the hotel just across the river and the water sports facilities of Kielder Water only a few miles up the valley, there is no shortage of outdoor activities to sample. But it is angling which attracts more guests than any other sport, thanks to the ever-growing reputation of the North Tyne as a top salmon and sea trout river.
With almost half a mile of river frontage, the hotel offers fishing enthusiasts a great game-fishing opportunity at a fraction of the price they would have to pay on a top Scottish river. The average weight of salmon caught here is running at 14lbs, and actor Robson Green recently caught a 27 pounder on this stretch of the North Tyne.
Thanks to large annual releases of young salmon into the river from the Kielder fish hatchery, it was rated Britain's best salmon river by Trout & Salmon magazine in 2003.
John's eldest son, Jonathan, looks after the hotel's angling guests who now bring the business a £100,000 annual income and have made September and October - when the returning salmon make their autumn run - Riverdale Hall's busiest months of the year and required the kitchens to install a large extra freezer to store guests' catches.
Despite the fact that John has added to the hotel's 23 bedrooms by building four self-catering apartments in the hotel grounds, and by acquiring two properties in Bellingham village, he has plans to build still more selfcatering accommodation.
Retirement is not on his agenda. He said: “I wake up every morning and realise how lucky I am to be able to do the two things I enjoy most in life - taking part in sport and running a hotel.