Merton House, having outgrown its original property was transferred to a new location on Belvedere Hill, where a private house known as Fontenay stood, as the Merton Hotel. After the creation of Seymour Hotels in 1928, the Seymours acquired the Pomme d'Or Hotel in 1930.
This was rescued from its dilapidated state and re-established as one of St Helier's premier hotels, before parts of it were demolished and rebuilt in 1938. The work was completed on schedule, but unfortunately the arrival of German occupying forces in 1940, who requisitoned the hotel along with many others, put paid to the Seymours' plans for five years.
The family business soon recovered after the war, and as tourism in Jersey boomed, they went on to acquire and build other businesses and become the island's largest hotel group.
Today the groups remains very much a Seymour family business. George and Ada's son, Robin, is chairman of the company and their grandson, David, is managing director. The Merton and Pomme d'Or are the group's two main hotels, and have been joined by the Greenhills Country Hotel, and the Watersplash, which opened in 1954 and has since been one of the island's most important entertainment venues. Over the years the group has also owned Le Coie Hotel, Hotel de la Plage and Mascot Motors, a coach operator and hire car company.
Archives
In 2012 the group had its archives professionally catalogued and group managing director David Seymour handed over a set of documents to Jersey Archive. The process also enabled Jerripedia to receive a set of images and background information which contributed greatly to the pages linked to below.
Links
- Merton Hotel
- Life on Honeymoon Island
- Pomme d'Or Hotel
- Portelet Hotel
- Hotel de la Plage
- Le Coie Hotel
- Greenhills Country Hotel
- Mascot Motors
- The Watersplash
- A history from the hotel website
- The group's official history
- The Seymour family
1980 advert
