The 100-year-old spa hotel that has become a luxury migrant hotel in rural village… with guards and some surprising deliveries

With its wood-panelled rooms and health club, the Cisswood House Hotel was once a popular venue for weddings and a perfect spot for a weekend break.

Local residents also regularly enjoyed drinks in the cosy bar and used the swimming pool, jacuzzi and gym at the three star hotel while admiring its immaculately kept grounds.

But now the hotel which was originally built as a country home for Harrods chairman Sir Woodman Burbidge in 1928 and named after his wife Cissily is playing a less welcome role as a hostel for asylum-seeking families.

Around 160 migrants, half of them children, have been living for the last two years at the hotel in Lower Beeding which has a population of around 1,000 people near Horsham, West Sussex.

Their presence has been described as a ‘nightmare’ by some villagers who have complained about them making excessive noise while playing football or cricket in the hotel’s car park, and wandering into gardens.

While others insist they are ‘no problem’ and deserving of sympathy, there have also been moans about migrants littering in the area, and touting for cash jobs by knocking on doors, despite being not allowed to work.

And the use of the hotel has also prompted concerns that house prices have been potentially hit and some nearby homes are proving hard to sell.

Other residents claim that having so many extra children in a rural area has put pressure on local schools, while taxis and a minibus have been provided to take them to lessons.

The 51 room hotel began housing asylum seekers in March 2023 following its closure in January 2022 when its management company went into voluntary liquidation, blaming uncertainty in the hospitality sector following Covid.

Villagers claim they were taken by surprise when coaches suddenly started dropping off migrant families who were previously housed in inner city areas, such as Tower Hamlets in east London.

They spoke to MailOnline this week as it was revealed that the expected Government bill for asylum accommodation which was expected to be £4.5billion for the decade from 2019 had soared to £15.3billion – the equivalent of £4,191,780 a day.

The arrival of the migrants has particularly affected Nick Illes, 55, and his wife Becky, 56, who live in a detached house at the rear of the hotel which was owned by Nick’s parents from 1976 until they sold it to new operators in 1997.

The couple who run The Green Man gastro pub in nearby Partridge Green, and share a driveway with the hotel, said they had earlier noticed building work going on after the hotel had been empty for more than a year.

Mrs Illes said: ‘We were aware that the old owner had been trying to get planning permission to build flats on the site, but it was always our concern that the hotel would be used for asylum seekers.

‘When we saw activity there, we asked what was going on, but they were a bit evasive. We asked the parish council, and the district council, and they had no idea what was happening. Then three weeks later, these coaches started arriving.

‘We came home one night from work and all the gates were closed so we could not get to our house. We had to argue with the guards that we lived there and were entitled to get to our home.’

Mr Illes said the asylum seekers presence had ‘a massive impact’ on a small health spa, complete with a hot tub which he had built beside his home as a part time business for his daughter.

He said: ‘She had been operating it in the summer months with a hairdresser friend using it as a salon. But all of a sudden their women customers were having to come down the hotel driveway with guards asking them questions.

‘It is not surprising that it made customers uneasy and business dropped off. We had to tell people not to stop for the guards.’

Mr Illes added: ‘We used to leave our cars unlocked because we never had any crime around here, but since the migrants arrived we have had stuff stolen from them three times, which is a bit of a coincidence.

‘The littering around the hotel is a disgrace. Sometimes our dogs come back with dirty nappies which get left outside windows. We are on tenterhooks when the dogs bark because we don’t know who is coming up our driveway.

‘We have to put up with noise from cricket and football matches played on the car park at the front. One day there were three cricket matches going on. The noise from all the clapping and cheering was incredible.

‘We own eight acres of fields around here and there are signs telling people to keep out, but I often find kids from the hotel on my land.

‘It looks like they have been re-arranging the hotel to cram in as many people as possible. I saw through the French windows that there was a conference room with around ten beds inside.’

Mr Illes said that deliveries meant for residents of the hotel often turned up at his home by mistake, forcing him to drop them off or re-direct them.

He added: ‘We had 70 televisions turn up at once and have had items like designer sunglasses delivered here by mistake. You can tell by the name that things are meant for someone in the hotel.

‘A lot of the migrants certainly are not short of money. I saw loads of them coming back with designer shopping bags last Christmas, yet they have taxis to take the kids to school and the use of a minibus to get around.

‘The people come from all over. We had some in full South American dress, while others look like they might be from Afghanistan.

‘There was one woman from Ukraine there for a while. She hated it, and said there was always fights, and the police coming and going.’

Mrs Illes said: ‘This is a lovely spot to live, but it is not the same now. I never used to lock our front door, but now I don’t feel as safe as we used to.

‘I am all for helping people and being compassionate, but I don’t feel that the hotel is the right place for an asylum hostel. There just are not enough facilities around here.

‘There were some children there who used to call our dogs so they ran down the driveway. Then they would throw stones at them. Maybe it is a cultural thing, but you should not do that in the UK.’

Project manager Lewis Hayward, 35, who has lived close to the hotel for five years with wife Kayleigh, 35, and their two children, said: ‘It has been a nightmare. My main issue is the noise because the kids use the car park as a playground.

‘As it is no longer officially a hotel, the management have left the grounds get completely overgrown so the grass is no longer cut meaning they can’t play football on the old lawns.

‘So we hear them screaming and yelling on the car park until 10pm at night which means my children cannot get to sleep. There is also a problem with littering, trespassing and a general lack of respect for the area.

‘I went over last Monday at 8.30pm to complain about the noise from a football game, and a resident told me that as soon as security were away, he would have me, and he made a throat-slitting gesture.

‘We bought our house because the area was beautiful. We used the hotel a few times for afternoon tea, and paid to use the gym and swimming pool which did swimming lessons for kids.

‘But it is all very different now. The noise is non-stop and every single night. It has definitely lowered house prices. One place around here has been on the market for more than a year.’

‘We have had people come into our garden and once a whole load came over and peered through our windows. I ended up putting wire fencing all around the back of my house to keep them out.

‘Another family had kids jump over their fence and play football in their garden, while two other grown men went out on someone’s lake in their little boat, and just sat there chilling out and smoking.

‘There is a little hut used by the security guards and the people in the hotel are supposed to sign themselves in and out, but rather than do that, some just come and go through a hole they made in the hedge.

‘It is concerning because we live on a 60mph limit on the road, and we see kids darting across to collect a stray ball. There could be a serious accident.

‘The hotel seems to be poorly maintained, and there appears to be a problem with a sceptic tank or the drains because you can see a flood of sewage through the gap in the hedge.’

Mr Hayward said he and his wife had paid £780,000 for their Grade Two listed 19th century home, and feared its value had ‘taken a massive hit’.

He added: ‘We have considered selling, and if we could we would just sell up tomorrow, but nobody would buy our house.’

A business consultant living near the hotel who asked not to be named, said: ‘I am very sorry for the people who are in a situation which leads to them having to live there.

‘But I am also sorry for the affect it is having on our village. We do not have the infrastructure for a large number of people to be living in the hotel. There is not even a proper bus stop for them to use, and children have to stand at the side of a busy road.

‘When they first moved in, there was a lot of noise. I spoke to the managers, but nothing changed and then I spoke to a local councillor, and the district council made them keep the noise down.

‘I moved to Sussex to live in the countryside and I still find it shocking to see women walking down the road in a full niqab.

‘As a taxpayer, I also feel uncomfortable seeing the large number of Ocado and Amazon vans making deliveries to the hotel every day.

‘It is a shame that it is no longer a proper hotel, but in the last few years it got very shabby. It was a beautiful old place with the Harrods history behind it, but it had been run into the ground.’

Airline pilot Angus Henderson who lives further up the road with wife Geordie and their teenage son said he had repeatedly had to stop migrants walking down the driveway which he shares with four other homes.

As a result he has put up a sign, warning them to ‘Keep Out’ and saying that ‘entry on this land constitutes trespass’.

Mr Henderson, 50, said: ‘It is a shame for the village that the hotel closed down, but that happened before the migrants came and is nothing to do with them.

‘When they moved here, I would find lots of them walking down the driveway, and I would tell them that they should not be doing that. They would always engage with me and be polite. Putting up the sign has helped.

‘I feel sorry for them and I try to empathise with them, but I appreciate there is an awful lot of taxpayers money going into the system and supporting them. There was a rumour that they were going to leave by last Christmas, but that didn’t happen.’

Mrs Henderson, 45, who works as a school science technician, said: ‘I just say that this is private property if I see them walking down. They are never rude and always go, “Sorry, Sorry”.’

A retired businessman living nearby who also asked not to be named, said: ‘I don’t find them to be a problem. They don’t make it all the way down my drive, and even if they did I have iron gates to put them off.

‘I have lived here for 34 years and I used to go to the hotel for food before the standard went down badly, and it became a bit decrepit. It needs a major upgrade to succeed as an actual hotel.’

Describing the use of the hotel for migrants, he said: ‘I think the whole thing is a nonsense. The Government could be more robust with how they deal with them, but they allow the courts to dictate what the policy is.

‘You have to feel for them, but if you try to deport them, then the lawyers get involved, and nothing happens. My main argument is that we should allow them to work.’

Mark Webber, 65, who is landlord of the village’s 19th century pub The Plough, said: ‘I have had a few of the migrants in here. Some come in and think they can sit here without buying a drink.

‘I had a band here one night and one of them wanted to buy a bottle of scotch instead of a shot. We had to explain that we didn’t do that.

‘I know there is a minibus for them to take the kids to school while local children have to walk.

‘The closure of the hotel certainly had an affect on our business. There would be groups of people staying there, sometimes women using the health club, and they would pop in for a drink – but that has stopped now.’

Another resident living opposite the entrance to the hotel, described the migrants as ‘absolutely lovely’ people who just wanted to care for their children.

She added: ‘This is an affluent area and there is quite a bit of NIMBYism, but people have to stay somewhere and I haven’t got a problem with it.

‘I find them all to be charming. There are no teenagers loitering around at night or anything like that. When there was a car crash down the road a few months ago, the dads came out and wanted to help.

‘The only noise I hear is children playing, and I like that, but if some people don’t, then that is their issue. It is no different to living next to a housing estate.

‘When we had those disgusting riots last year, I went over to ask if they were OK and told them to tell me if they had any trouble at all. I stayed vigilant and watched out for them, but there were no problems.’

Mother-of-three Vickii Burton, 52, who works as an actuary, said: ‘I just see lots of mothers and their children walking up and down the road into Horsham, or sometimes on bikes. We have no issues.’

Peter Knox, the clerk of Lower Beeding Parish Council, said: ‘The hotel had been closed for a year when the police said they were looking at the security issues there, but they never said who it was for.

‘They were asking about the fire risk there and I went with a police sergeant to have a look around. We later had notification from West Sussex County Council that the migrants were coming.

‘There were some issues at the beginning with noise, but there have not really been problems since them.’

Land Registry records reveal that the hotel was sold in Match 2023 to a company called Waterfront Assets Ltd. The company is partly owned by Jarjoura Consultants which did not respond to a request for comment.