Relaxation is Will Ashworth’s buzzword. It crops up again and again when he’s describing the ambience he’s aiming for at Another Place, The Lake, his just-opened 40-bedroom hotel on the shores of Ullswater.

“The whole ID, the whole framework, everything is about creating a really relaxed atmosphere,” he says.

But just how relaxed is the hotelier himself, given that he’s the driving force behind a £7.7m mission to buy the former Rampsbeck hotel at Watermillock, revamp the Georgian building, put up an extension with an infinity pool in a swish Swim Club, recruit 75 staff and launch the whole shebang?

“Personally I’m not,” he says. “I think being an MD of two hotels has a certain pressure.”

But he’s soon back on message: “When I go on holiday, I don’t want anything stuffy or anything that isn’t incredibly relaxed.

“When I go skiing or go on my family holiday, I want to kick back and want to be wearing flip-flops and shorts. I want to be feeling incredibly relaxed – that’s the philosophy we’ve brought through here.”

If anyone was still in any doubt about how Will, 42, wants his guests to feel he adds: “Imagine staying in a really good friend’s holiday home and that’s the sort of atmosphere we’re trying to create.”

Will and his family have a successful track record in tapping into what the middle-classes want on their holidays.

His parents, John and Mary, bought Watergate Bay, a beach hotel near Newquay in north Cornwall in 1967 and it’s now a successful year-round ‘ski resort on a beach’ destination, popular with couples and families in search of a sun-kissed, surfing, dining and relaxing break.

Will is now attempting to repeat that success with Another Place, The Lake, which is intended to be the first of a collection – not a chain, I’m told, which is too corporate and doesn’t reflect their approach – of six hotels in different locations.

Each will be named for their location – for example, Another Place, The Mountain. The name Another Place was first given to a lifestyle magazine produced at Watergate Bay.

With Ullswater only just opened, Will is already looking for the second hotel.

It was the location of what was then the Rampsbeck that won Will over. The hotel is set in 18 acres of parkland but what lies beyond was the clincher: “The day that I came to see the hotel for the first time was the day I visited the Lake District for the first time.

“It absolutely blew me away. That view down Ullswater is so unspoiled, there’s so little development. It feels like the raw Lake District that must have been here 200 years ago.”
Will on the new hotel jetty, looking across Ullswater to Arthur’s Pike and Bonscale Pike, part of the High Street range of fells

The fells and the lake are key to the strong sporting ethos at Another Place, where guests can sign up for kayaking, stand-up paddle boarding, canoeing and wild swimming and are encouraged to take to the fells for biking or walking.

But if they want to be less active they can use the 20-metre infinity pool – with its views of Ullswater and the High Street range reflected in the water – or sit back in the sauna or hot tub in the Swim Club, where there’s also a gym and treatment rooms.

Will says they’re not going to go after Michelin stars or AA rosettes which aren’t compatible with the relaxed approach they take in their dining areas. But the food, from the breakfast waffles guests can make for themselves – a big hit at Watergate Bay – to all-day dining in the informal Living Space bar-restaurant to dinner in the Rampsbeck Restaurant will all be about quality.

Local chef David Lancaster, who has worked at Sharrow Bay and Four & Twenty in Penrith, has been recruited as head chef and Watergate Bay’s executive chef, Neil Haydock, will be fulfilling a similar role at Ullswater.

Staying at Another Place isn’t cheap – although Will says their double rooms start from a reasonable £160 including use of the pool and children’s facilities – but Cumbrians may want to take advantage of a day membership for the Swim Club or a swim and dine offer to use the pool before a meal in the Rampsbeck Restaurant, due to open to non-guests soon.

The Living Space is already welcoming non-residents.

Will grew up in Cornwall and went to Oxford Brookes University where he studied hotel and restaurant management. He worked for Marriott Hotels in the States and spent a year at a university in Canada.

After university he worked in Africa and London but with the intention of going back to Cornwall.

“I always knew what I wanted to do was go back and take over my family business and work with my brother, Henry.”

Will is married to Pix and they have three daughters, Tamara, 10, Cicely, nine and Honor, four. Tamara could be the third generation in the family business: “She’s constantly asking me what I’m doing and how much money I’m spending.”

Another Place is a separate business to Watergate Bay – which Will describes as the big sister – and investors have come on board to help finance the development.
One of the first floor bedrooms wiith views over Ullswater

Will is confident that what they’re offering is different enough to attract new business and visitors to Cumbria.

“Certainly it’s going to work. We’ve some form, in as much as Watergate Bay has been in my family for nearly 50 years.

“They [his parents] invested their lifetime’s work in it and I’m investing my lifetime’s work in it – it’s going to be Watergate and Another Place hotels.”

Will says they’ve been bowled over by their reception in Cumbria where the rural economy and sparse population have much in common with Cornwall: “You’re always slightly nervous when you go into a new area but it’s been quite the opposite, it’s been incredibly welcoming.”

He says choosing Ullswater as the first Another Place was easy: “Honestly, you just need to go outside to understand why.

“For us, a really strong food culture, a beautiful, natural setting and the ability to get outdoors and have a great time – if that’s the three criteria we’re looking for when we’re looking to build a new hotel then you can see why Cumbria was a hugely easy choice.”

Visit another.place/the-lake

This article first appeared in the October edition of Cumbria Life. The November edition, with free Cumbria Life Christmas Magazine, is on sale now.