The Grange B&B in Emmerdale offers tourists, and on a pretty regular basis, locals, a place to stay. It’s been a fundamental part of village life since 2002.
It is located on Main Street, next to The Woolpack pub. With its chic and stylish décor, The Grange definitely offers that boutique feel to its paying customers.
Business has been up and down over the years, but whatever crisis its faced, the B&B always seems to bounce back.
The Grange is currently jointly owned by village residents Bob Hope and Nicola King, but has changed hands many times over the years.
It’s also been the scene of a grisly murder – or two – but just don’t tell the guests!
History of the B&B in Emmerdale
The building of The Grange dates way back to around 1700. It was once the residence of a lady called Mrs Butterworth.
It’s next door to the former corn chandlers dwellings, which in 1976 were transformed into The Woolpack after the original pub was found to have subsidence.
The first time the building was featured on air was in 1990 when a tanker crashed into its front wall.
Murder most horrid
In 2002, village resident Alan Turner took over the running of The Grange. Alan already had considerable experience in managing a business, having previously been the landlord of The Woolpack.
Four years later, Alan’s son Terence Turner came to stay at the B&B. It was revealed he had abused his sister, and Alan’s daughter, Stephanie Forsythe, when they were teenagers.
A fight broke out upstairs in The Grange between Terence and Steph’s husband Dr Adam Forsythe, who ended up bludgeoning his brother-in-law to death with a fire extinguisher.
But he wasn’t the only unlucky person to meet a grisly end in the B&B.
In May 2018, serial killer Lachlan White claimed another victim. He lured Gerry Roberts to the B&B – that was undergoing renovations at the time – and proceeded to bash his brains out.
Louise and Terry take over
In 2004 Louise Appleton and Terry Woods were in a relationship and it was getting serious. They decided to buy the B&B together and Matthew King stepped in to help with the financial side of things.
Unfortunately, Matthew’s intentions weren’t honorable and soon he and Louise began an affair. When the truth came out, the B&B deal came through.
However, Terry once again tried to buy the place, with new girlfriend Jean Hope. Jean couldn’t come up with the cash, though, so Louise stepped in again. She sold her share of the Woolpack to Val Lambert to spite Diane who she blamed for the breakdown of her latest relationship.
The Eric Pollard years at the B&B in Emmerdale
In 2008, Eric married the irrepressible Val Lambert and Louise, who had moved back to Australia, sold her share of the B&B to them. Terry then sold his share to them a year later. Together Eric and Val really put their stamp on the place.
Two years on, teenage tearaway Amy Wyatt rocked up at the B&B under the pretence of being a nurse looking for a cut-price room.
The Pollards soon discovered Amy was on the run from her foster family. But they took pity and invited her to stay, before going on to formally adopt her.
The fortunes of the B&B fluctuated over the years, and Pollard struggled to stay afloat after Val’s tragic death in 2015.
Unwelcome guests
In 2022, Pollard hired Chas Dingle to be the new manager of the B&B.
Chas had just been forced to sell her share of The Woolpack and was out for revenge on her cousin Charity, who had taken the role of landlady of her beloved boozer.
Eric helped Chas sabotage Charity’s grand re-opening, but as payback Mackenzie Boyd infested the B&B with rats!
Unsurprisingly, Chas’s stint at the B&B ended shortly afterwards and she returned to where she belongs – behind the bar of the Woolie.
The end of an era
In 2023 Eric made the tough decision to sell up to help out son, David Metcalfe, who’d fallen into financial troubles with David’s shop.
Bob Hope and Bernice Blackstock became the new owners of The Grange and set about giving the place a very glamorous glow-up.
Having completed their rather bougie makeover, Bernice and Bob invited the residents to attend their grand reopening party and hired a harp player called Tim to provide the entertainment.
Bernice also ended up playing sweet music with the harpist. But tragedy struck when Bob thought he had found Tim dead in one of the B&B’s bedrooms.
This time there had been no foul play, it looked like poor Tim’s heart had just given out. However all was okay when Tim actually woke up, having taken a sleeping pill to block out Bernice’s snoring!
Bernice and Bob’s partnership didn’t last long after that.
In November 2023 Bernice was found to have been defrauding her sister Nicola King and did a flit from the village.
The Grange is now co-owned between Nicola and Bob.
Emmerdale usually airs weeknights on ITV at 7.30pm.
Classic Emmerdale usually airs every weekday on ITV3 at 6am and 6.30am, plus 1.40pm and 2.10pm.
