The Woody Bay Hotel, originally known as the Wooda Bay Hotel, has a fascinating and turbulent history tied to the ambitious Victorian development of Woody Bay in North Devon. In the late 19th century, Colonel Benjamin Greene Lake, a wealthy solicitor from Kent, purchased the Manor of Martinhoe (then called Wooda Bay) and set out to transform the area into an exclusive seaside resort. Between 1888 and 1894, Lake converted the manor house into the Wooda Bay Hotel (now Martinhoe Manor) and also planned and built several other properties in the area, including what became known as the Woody Bay Hotel and The Coach House

Lake’s grand vision included new roads, a golf course, villas, a pier for coastal steamers, and even plans for a cliff railway and a branch line to the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway, which arrived in 1898. However, many of these schemes were plagued by financial difficulties and poor planning. The pier, completed in 1897, was too short for steamers at low tide and was soon damaged by storms, eventually being demolished by 1902. Lake’s financial troubles culminated in bankruptcy and a prison sentence for fraud, and after his death in 1909, the dream of a major resort faded. The Wooda Bay Hotel and other estate properties were auctioned in 1900, and the area settled into a quieter existence, with remnants of Lake’s ambitious plans still visible in the landscape today