From the journal
What the 2024 sale record tells us about the Manor House Inn
The recorded freehold price is £482,837. Read that figure alongside the named property, transfer date and agent’s announcement without confusing the inn with another Ditcheat house.
HM Land Registry's public Price Paid Data records £482,837 for Manor House Inn, Ditcheat, on 22 March 2024. The entry describes a freehold property at BA4 6RB. On 27 March, the agent Christie & Co announced its sale to Chickpea Group.
These are two complementary records. One provides the registered property transaction details; the other identifies the buyer and explains the position of the pub. Reading them together is more useful than treating a headline price as the complete history of a business.
Keep the address beside the number
Open the Land Registry search for Manor House Inn and BA4 6RB. The result consulted for this article identifies the building as Manor House Inn, locality Ditcheat, town Shepton Mallet. It records the property type as “other”, the estate type as freehold and the transaction date as 22 March 2024.
Copy those labels into a research note before copying the price. They help establish which record you are discussing and prevent a later clipping or spreadsheet row from losing its context. Shepton Mallet in the postal description does not move the inn out of Ditcheat village.
Do not shorten the building name to “Manor House” in your notes. The inn and the separate Ditcheat House or Ditcheat Manor are different properties. A shared village, a similar name or a postcode search is not enough to combine their histories or transfer figures.
Distinguish the transaction from the announcement
Christie & Co's announcement is dated 27 March 2024. It names Chickpea Group as the purchaser and says the inn had closed in November 2023, with renovation and reopening planned.
That announcement date is five days after the transfer date in the Land Registry entry. There is no contradiction: the dates describe different events. A careful chronology can contain both without pretending the newspaper or agent published news on the legal transfer date.
The agent's announcement concerns a closed pub and its intended revival. Its plans should be described as plans at that point, not as evidence that the building had already reopened. Our restoration and reopening guide follows the later chapter separately.
Understand what the figure leaves out
The registered property price does not, on its own, provide an itemised account of a commercial acquisition. It does not tell us the separate value of furniture, stock, business arrangements or subsequent building work. Nor does it establish the total spent before the first new customer arrived.
Keep those unanswered questions open. A lower figure than a price mentioned elsewhere does not prove a particular negotiating strategy, a bargain or financial difficulty. To compare an asking price with a recorded transfer, you would need a dated source for the asking price and confidence that both descriptions cover the same transaction and property interests.
Likewise, a freehold transfer record is not evidence about a website address, a guest's historic booking or what digital accounts changed hands. Those matters need their own records; they are not useful explanations for the price field.
Build a small evidence table
For your own local-history notes, use four columns: statement, source, date described, and limit. One row can record the property price and transfer date. Another can record the buyer named in the agent's announcement. A third can hold a later reopening source, if you investigate that question.
Add the full source address and the date you consulted it. Keep observations separate from questions, and retain the original building name when you write a caption. Another reader should be able to retrace your comparison without relying on your memory of a search result.
Use the right website for a visit today
Manor House Inn Guide is an independent visitor and heritage publication, not the owner or operator of the pub. For rooms, meals or a question about arriving, use the inn's current operator website. A historical sale record cannot confirm a present service, price or reservation.
Public records checked on 9 November 2026.
Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2021. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.