DILLINGTON House in Ilminster "will be closing its doors" later this year, it has been confirmed.

In September 2022 Somerset County Council (SCC) "took the difficult decision" to activate a break clause in the lease and cease its activities at Dillington House from 30 September 2023.

A message shared on the Dillington House through its official Facebook account last week said: “We’re sorry to announce that from the 30th of September Dillington House will be closing its doors."

SCC has leased the 16th Century Grade 2 listed country house since September 1966 – initially for adult/community education and more recently as a venue for meetings/conferences and various events such as weddings.

Operations in the building currently run at a substantial loss and this decision will enable public monies and resources to be focused on the council’s statutory duties such as children and adult social care.

 

A message on the Dillington House’s website says “it’s very much business as usual until 30 September 2023.”

The message also said: “SCC adjusted the terms of its lease so it could continue running its activities until the end of September 2023, avoiding disruption to academic courses run by Somerset Centre for Integrated Learning (SCIL) and also enabling it to honour the majority of its existing bookings at Dillington – including weddings booked throughout 2023.

“We are determined to ensure that customers visiting Dillington throughout 2023 experience the same high quality of service that they would have received in previous years.

“Staff will be supported in finding alternative employment, especially within the council where appropriate, to minimise redundancies.

“A staff retention scheme has been agreed to incentivise and reward those employees who continue to work at Dillington until it ceases operation on 30 Sept 23.

“The main house and surrounding buildings will be handed back to the landlords, who own the surrounding Dillington Estate. We don’t have any further information at this point on future plans for the house."

The information on the website also said that Shindig Festival “is arranged through the Dillington estate and not affected by SCC ceasing its activities at Dillington.

“The event is currently taking place between the 25-28 May 2023.”

The full message shared on the Dillington House Facebook page said: “We’re sorry to announce that from the 30th of September Dillington House will be closing its doors.

“After much deliberation and with heavy hearts the decision was made to cease activities at Dillington House.

“Business will carry on as usual until that date, so anything that you have booked to attend before 30th of September 2023 will still proceed as usual.

“We are determined to ensure that customers visiting Dillington House throughout 2023 will continue to experience the same high quality of service.”

For more information visit the website.