Blaze rips through 19th-Century Ellingham Hall

May 18 2010 by Joanne Butcher, The Journal

A HOTEL owner told of the devastation caused by a fire which ripped though part of his country house.

A blaze broke out in the early hours of yesterday morning in a chapel attached to Ellingham Hall, near Alnwick, in Northumberland.

Flames gutted the 19th-Century building but fire crews managed to stop the fire spreading to the house itself.

Aidan Ruff, who has owned the hall with his wife Helen for 16 years and brought it back from near dereliction, said last night: “I am just so relieved that no one was hurt. The smoke alarms went off and woke everyone up well before smoke started to get into the main house.

“We spent a fortune on a good smoke alarm system and this proves just how vital that is.”

The fire is thought to have started at around 4.30am in the hotel’s leisure suite, which is connected to the 1890s gothic revival chapel in an annex to the house.

The space includes a steam room and changing facilities. It is understood guests had been using the leisure suite into the early hours and the flames started shortly after they had left for bed, but at this stage the cause of the fire has not been established.