Bishopscourt couple
start community role 
with OAP home visit

THE new owner of Bishopscourt, John Morphet and his partner Donna Hurst, have expressed a wish to be part of the local community and made a good start when they met residents of Cannan Court sheltered housing complex in Kirk Michael.
By The Newsroom
Published 8th Oct 2010, 10:38 BST

They were guests of Cannan Court chairman, David Cannan MHK at the complex’s annual coffee morning.

Mr Morphet, 55, moved to the Island in April after purchasing Bishopscourt for £5 million.

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The historic mansion had been up for sale since 2007 following the death of previous owner, William Lomas. Until the 1970s, it was the official residence of the Lord Bishop of Sodor and Man.

Mr Morphet made his fortune in the leisure industry and now features in the Sunday Times ‘Rich List’.

At Cannan Court, Mr Morphet told residents he was a ‘retired farmer from the Lake District’.

He said they’d had a wonderful welcome in the Island and that David Cannan had been ‘an absolute rock’.

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‘We’ll never be the owner of Bishopscourt – we are just looking after it for the next generation,’ he added.

Flowers were presented to the couple by Alice Cashin, granddaughter of two Cannan Court committee members, Peter Clague and Phyllis Cashin.

Speaking afterwards, Donna Hurst, 30, repeated her partner Mr Morphet’s sentiments.

‘We are custodians of Bishopscourt,’ she said. ‘It is a beautiful home and thanks are due to the previous owners, Graham Ferguson-Lacey and William Lomas, for leaving it in such good order.’

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They said they had been inundated with requests to host charity events and were considering them. ‘We do plan to open it up to the public and are more than happy for people to use the chapel for weddings, etc,’ she added.

After leaving school at 17, Mr Morphet built up South Lakeland Caravans business, creating luxury log cabin resorts. He sold the business to a private equity buyer for £100 million and now owns the Pure Leisure Group, which has golf resorts and caravan parks across the UK.

His new venture, the JC Morphet Group, handles guest bookings for both its British holiday park business and the exclusive Royal Westmoreland estate in Barbados. Sporting stars such as Wayne Rooney, Gary Lineker and Andrew Flintoff own homes at the 750-acre Caribbean estate.

True to his promise, Mr Morphet has already created 12 local jobs by launching a holiday reservations and financial services business from the estate office at Bishopscourt.

Donna Hurst works closely with him as marketing director.

Related topics:Pure Leisure Group