EIGHTY five current and former hotel staff at the Arundell Arms attended a celebration dinner at the site in Lifton to mark 50 years of ownership and management by the Fox-Edwards family.

Anne and Gerald Fox-Edwards took over the Arundell Arms Hotel in 1961. They were inspired by the beauty of West Devon and in particular by the wonderful rivers of the region. They developed the hotel and improving the fishing for which the hotel is world famous. Sadly, Gerald died in 1973 and Anne Voss Bark (as she became following her marriage to Conrad) continued this work until her retirement in 2008. 

The hotel is now owned and managed by Adam and Tina Fox-Edwards. Adam is a local boy having been born and brought up in Lifton and went to Tavistock School.

Adam Fox-Edwards said: 'It is great being able to celebrate this wonderful occasion with our staff. They have played such a huge part in the success of our business over the last 50 years. On Sunday night, we had 85 staff with nearly 1,000 years of service between them to the hotel and its guests.  

'The Arundell Arms is very much a family business for the staff too and many have family connections going back to the 1960s.

'There are two mothers and daughters currently working at the hotel and one grandmother, mother and daughter.  In my family's time, nine of the hotel staff have met their future husbands or wives through the hotel and there have been six weddings and 12 children as a result. 

'Over the past 50 years the hotel has played a part in thousands of local families' lives too as it has hosted hundreds of weddings, christenings, anniversaries and parties.'