A North Staffordshire ‘eco-hotel’ which is popular with Scandinavian Stoke City fans is celebrating its 40th year in business.
The Tollgate Hotel, in Stoke-on-Trent, started off as a squash club when founder Geoff Oldfield became frustrated at the lack of availability at his local facility.
At that time, in July 1979, it had just four squash courts, changing rooms and a bar.
Over the years the family-run business has expanded to the point where it now has 27 hotel rooms, a sports bar, function rooms, a gym, dance studio and ladies-only fitness centre as well as dedicated areas for squash, snooker and hair and beauty.
Seventy eight-year-old Geoff and his wife Gwen, aged 76, are still involved in the business – and still live on the premises – but their son Adrian and his wife Lynn help to manage the day-to-day-running of the venue.
Adrian said: “Back in the day it was a bit of a hobby for my dad to build properties and when he had to wait three or four weeks for a squash court at the local tennis club he decided he would just build his own and that’s how we are where we are now.
"I remember being there as a small child, right from the beginning when the first patch of soil was dug into.”
For the last four decades The Tollgate has been popular with tourists, particularly with those visiting some of the city’s most popular attraction including and Trentham Gardens.
Most Read
But in addition to this – and in an effort to drum up business during the colder, winter months – the Tollgate has developed a strong relationship with visiting Stoke City fans from Sweden and Norway.
Now between six and 70 Scandinavian Potters fans book out rooms at The Tollgate every weekend during the football season.
Adrian said: “Our relationship with them started about 10 years ago. I was getting feedback from Stoke City fans over there that they were struggling to get match tickets.
“So we decided to start offering a service where we would work with the fans and Stoke to ensure they got a seat at their chosen games. Our thinking was that if they are going to go to all of the effort to travel over here and stay in the city then we should make sure they could get some tickets.”
The fifty-one-year-old added: “We provide that service for free, but in return they book a room with us and use our facilities so it works for everybody. Now we have fans staying with us during every single home game and even some away games.”
Over the years, the Oldfield family have made a number of significant investments into the hotel including a recent extension to one of the function rooms.
But one of the biggest investments over the years has been the installation of 200 solar panels to enable the business to reduce its carbon footprint by 50 tonnes a year – a project which led to the company winning the 2013/14 Business Awards in the Environmental Business category.
Don’t miss
And a number of other investments are already in the pipeline for the next few years, including plans to go ‘off grid’ to make the hotel totally self-sufficient in terms of electricity production and storage.
Adrian said: “There have been challenges over the years, such as soaring costs. If we had an endless pot of money we would invest and re-invest, but that’s not always possible.
“But in general, we have been very fortunate over the years. We are really proud to be a local employer. We employ 38 staff most of which live within a 10-mile radius of the hotel.”