Treworgey Manor

Alan Walker bought the beautiful Treworgey estate near Liskeard, Cornwall in 2017, after selling off parts of his Hertfordshire farm for development.

Having looked for suitable properties across the West Country, Alan, his wife Pat, son Jim and daughter in law Debbie realised Treworgey ticked all their boxes and so they all relocated to Cornwall.

The Treworgey estate dates back to 1598. Unfortunately the original manor house burnt down in the 1930s but was rebuilt as a smaller version soon after. The estate now comprises 115 acres of grassland and woods, the manor house and four holiday cottages with associated facilities including a swimming pool.

Renovations from the outset

As soon as they moved into Treworgey, the Walkers made some substantial changes. This included installing a state of the art biomass wood chip heating system to replace the storage heaters in all the properties. A new septic tank system was also installed, and the holiday cottages were all rewired, along with general maintenance and repairs being carried out.

Haines Watts advised the family on various tax matters surrounding the purchase of Treworgey including capital gains tax and the roll-over reliefs from the Hertfordshire farm. We were also able to advise on the capital allowance claims relating to the renovations work carried out. As a result, we were able to obtain a substantial tax refund from HMRC by looking again at the rollover relief claims made by the previous accountant!

Planning for the future

The move from full time farming into a mix of farming and holiday lets has been a challenge for the family, but one that they find very satisfying. Their holiday guests come from across the UK and overseas, to relax and soak up the magical surroundings which Treworgey has to offer. As a result, they have a 90-95% occupancy rate, with a high proportion of these guests being repeat visitors.

Not being the type of people to rest on their laurels the family are currently looking into erecting an indoor swimming pool, renovating a stone barn into a restaurant, and potentially reinstating several ponds which were part of the original estate.

With all these changes in the pipeline and as part of an in-depth estate planning exercise, Haines Watts worked with the family to look at future inheritance tax liabilities and have implemented several activities to minimise potential tax bills in the years ahead.

On the family’s relationship with Haines Watts, Jim Walker said: 

“They have played a key role in advising us on all aspects of our businesses, as well as our personal tax affairs. They have a great local team that we use on a day to day basis, but also have the national and international experts within the Haines Watts network who we can use when required. We can always pick up the phone and speak to someone, which is great.”