Boxing clever

The Hare at Scawton was named Yorkshire Life Restaurant of the Year in 2019 and owners Paul and Liz Jackson had big plans for their gourmet hotspot. When lockdown happened, they put down the kitchen knives and opened the tool box. The results are spectacular

Outside of The Hare at Scawton stands a pair of boxing hares. Inside, owners Paul and Liz Jackson have been putting up just as much of a fight over the past six months.

Like many in the hospitality business it’s been a fight for survival, but for this dynamic duo, it has also been a time to seize the moment and continue what’s been a passionate transformation of their 12th-century coaching inn to a restaurant with very desirable rooms.

The workaholic pair had always planned to add rooms to their much-loved restaurant. Its location, not far from Sutton Bank, the market town of Helmsley, and the historic Rievaulx Abbey in North Yorkshire made it what you’d call a ‘destination’ restaurant.

They knew it would definitely add to the dining experience for guests to be able to make the most of wine-pairing with the tasting menu and then head upstairs to bed rather than deal with taxis and big journeys.

But they are also perfectionists and a tight team at The Hare. Just as their restaurant has been designed to create a real ambiance and the food served is meticulously executed by 3AA rosette chef Paul, so the bedrooms had to be as impressive as they could be.

The transformation required effort, inspiration, and more than a measure of Yorkshire grit. Plenty of grit in its truest sense too as the bedrooms were hacked back by the couple to uncover treasures beneath – from weathered oak beams with many a story to tell, to inches-thick stone walls built to weather centuries of storms and offer shelter to travelers.

They became adept at handling plasterboard, knocking down walls, reinstating walls, fitting floors, and fixing things.