Administrators have been appointed to the Blazing Donkey Country Hotel in Kent, the family-run venue said, after 36 years of operation, leaving booked couples and guests facing sudden cancellations and potential financial losses.
The 22-bedroom hotel and wedding venue near Sandwich, operated by Edenlodge Associates Ltd and long run by Richard and Sherry Martin, closed as the couple stepped back from the business following Mrs. Martin’s illness and death and amid mounting financial pressures, the company said. The venue had previously declined a reported government-linked offer in 2022 of £1,080,000 and a guarantee of 100% occupancy for 12 months to house newly arrived asylum seekers.
In a statement, directors said the couple’s lives were changed "irreversibly" in January when co-director Sherry Martin was admitted to hospital with an aggressive brain-stem cancer, which later claimed her life at age 63. The Martins withdrew from day-to-day running of the business and, despite "significant and sustained cash injections" from personal savings, the company said it ultimately became impossible to continue operations while meeting high overheads.
The venue, which had won an AA rosette and was one of the first in the country licensed for outdoor ceremonies in 1999, hosted more than 2,000 weddings since becoming licensed and typically staged about 100 weddings a year, the owners said. Staff and managers said the business also handled more than 8,000 guest stays annually.
Prospective brides and grooms described turmoil after being told events would not go ahead. One couple, Kenna Nicholson and her fiancé, Anthony Russell, said they had spent more than £12,000 on a wedding booked 18 months earlier and were notified by administrators that they would be "lucky to receive a penny back for every pound" paid. "We're devastated — our whole day is just gone," Nicholson said.
Restaurant manager Christopher Cooper, who worked at the hotel, said staff would have viewed any decision to accommodate asylum seekers as a betrayal. "We've taken in refugees here, we've taken in homeless people at Christmas — but this would have been a betrayal of the staff," he said. Former statements from owner Richard Martin in 2022 described strong opposition to the reported offer, saying he and his wife felt "repulsed and very angry" that such a proposal had been made and that accepting it would have shattered the venue's reputation and let down booked couples.
The company’s statement said immediate steps were taken to close non-event operations so remaining staff could focus on delivering already-booked events, and that those events had proceeded while the couple was still involved. It added that without the wider core business operating and with overheads remaining high, it became impossible to continue hosting events in any form.
Companies House records for Edenlodge Associates Ltd had not shown a filing confirming administration at the time of publication. The Home Office declined to comment on whether an offer had been made by a third party to house asylum seekers at the hotel.
The closure comes against a broader backdrop in which the government has scrambled to find accommodation for people arriving in the UK by small boats. Officials reported more than 50,000 Channel crossings since the previous summer, a factor that has placed pressure on local housing resources and been cited by ministers and councils as driving some emergency accommodation measures.
Administrators did not immediately release full details of how payments and deposits for cancelled events would be handled, but the company said contact details for the appointed administrators would be provided to affected clients "very soon." Company records show Richard Martin remains listed as a director of Edenlodge Associates Ltd, and he incorporated a new property company on Aug. 24 classified as "buying and selling of own real estate."
The sudden closure of the Blazing Donkey underscores the combined effect of personal tragedy, operational strain and the financial pressures facing hospitality venues. For now, couples and other clients are seeking alternatives while awaiting further information from the appointed administrators.