Bretton Hall – Yorkshire Sculpture Park

About Bretton Hall

The beautiful Georgian-style Bretton Hall in West Yorkshire was redeveloped into a five-star luxury hotel by Leeds-based property development company, Rushbond. The oldest part of the grade II listed building, the south range, dates from around 1720 and the hall sits within the 500-acre, 18th-century Bretton Hall Estate, which is also home to the UK’s leading open-air gallery, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Meeting Our Customers’ Needs

Rushbond required support to remove tonnes of furniture from the property and to also secure the premises over a two-year period while it is under development. As Yorkshire Sculpture Park attracts around 400,000 visitors each year and the parkland surrounding Bretton Hall is open to the public, having a high degree of security in and around the building is vital, particularly given the high footfall.

Rushbond’s insurers Aviva were happy to recommend Orbis for the task having worked together with us on many successful projects in the past. With almost 40 years’ experience of clearing and securing properties, our professional teams are fully trained to manage large projects that require a range of services. When we began our site assessment, it became clear that Bretton Hall presented an unusual challenge as tonnes of old furniture, including antique tables, chairs and even pianos needed to be rehomed rather than destroyed, so a novel solution was needed.

Providing Real Solutions

We worked with Bretton Hall to hold an auction and invited local antique dealers on site to participate. Some pieces sold for hundreds of pounds, and all proceeds from the auction were donated to a charitable cause. The pianos were donated to local elderly people homes to help provide entertainment and ensure their continual use.

The British Heart Foundation was then invited on site to take all the remaining furniture, which included tonnes of beautiful vintage tables, chairs and office furniture. The charity was able to generate substantial funds from selling the furniture to support their amazing cause.

To provide security for Bretton Hall, we introduced a 24/7 manned guarding service, which kept a watchful eye on the building and the grounds. In the event of any problems, the guard can react quickly and be on the scene in a matter of seconds, providing our customer with the responsiveness that they needed.

In addition to securing the grounds, we also secured all building windows from trespassing using our unique polymer security screens. These screens are clear, unobtrusive and do not detract from the visual appeal of the beautiful grade listed building. Not only are the screens difficult to notice, even close up, they are also heavy-duty, and specifically designed to keep the property fully secure.