A new restaurant at a Grade II-listed manor house that is being transformed into a boutique hotel has opened after three years of restorations.

Boys Hall Restaurant and Rooms in Willesborough welcomed diners for the first time yesterday.

The venue has opened the ground floor of the building - including the 66-cover restaurant, three acres of gardens and the bar lounge - to the public.

The finishing touches are still being made to the 10 luxury hotel rooms, eight of which are set to open in December. All 10 should be ready by January.

The Jacobean house was taken over by husband and wife team Bradley and Kristie Lomas in 2019, who spent lockdown painstakingly repairing and restoring the building into their dream project.

The new restaurant, which will be open Wednesdays to Sundays, has an oak-beamed dining room which looks out onto the gardens on either side and has a terraced seating area.

Mrs Lomas, originally from Mersham, said: "It feels amazing to be here. But there is still so much to do so I haven't taken my foot off the gas yet.

"My husband Brad is very much the operations on the floor.

"People coming in over the next few weeks will always see him.

"I'm going to be around for a couple of weeks saying hi to people, but then I'll be back in my building clothes because we have lots of interest in the rooms.

"We are really proud, but there's still lots to do. We're obsessed with hospitality so it doesn't stop now, this is just the beginning."

The restaurant will be run by head chef Robbie Lorraine who has created the menu around seasonal ingredients produced in Kent.

Below the restaurant is a premium wine cellar which houses wines and Kentish fizz as well as a seasonal cocktail list and local ales.

The manor's bar which Mrs Lomas says will have a traditional pub feel, is set to open in the next few weeks.

When the rooms are ready, there will be five grand suites each with super-king beds, rolltop bathtubs in the room, window seats overlooking the estate and original fourposter beds.

A further three bedrooms will have ensuites, some with bathtubs, and two will be 'cosier' rooms with ensuite showers.

The double rooms will be available from £160 per night.

The large, landscaped grounds include a rose garden, a formal front lawn, beehives which produce the hall’s own honey and a kitchen garden which grows herbs and flowers for the restaurant and bar.

Mr and Mrs Lomas plan to add more elements to the garden in the years to come, including treatment rooms and eight luxury cabins around a wild pond.

The manor was originally built in 1616 by the Boys family, who had previously been known as De Bois, having landed in England from France at the time of the Norman conquest.

The estate passed into the Mersham and Knatchbull families – and it is believed Charles I stayed at the home while fleeing the forces of Oliver Cromwell.

With more than 400 years of history behind it, keeping as many original features as possible was a priority for the couple.

Mrs Lomas added: "The history was one of the things that I was passionate about from the start because the minute we walked into this house it felt like it gave us a big hug.

"You can feel the warmth from all of the features left behind, so as we’ve gone along, we've been really careful to make sure that we have kept every single feature we can.

"It's been really interesting to see how it has pieced together as the years have gone."

The 17th century manor was put on the market in 2013 for £2.4m.

The price was then slashed to £1.75m in 2018 after the property failed to sell.

It decreased again the following year when it was advertised by Christie & Co for offers in excess of £1.5m.

The husband-and-wife duo potential in the historic building and snapped.

They quit their hospitality jobs in London to combine their wealth of knowledge and experience in the industry to restore the period building and promise to offer guests an 'indulgent Kentish escape'.