Autumn Yoga Retreat - 26th to 28th September 2025

This room is in Molecey House.

John and Lucille van Geest lived here at Molecey from 1958 until 1984. John with his brother Len had arrived from Holland in the 1930’s and set up a bulb importing business. In 1954 John signed a deal to be responsible for banana importing from the Windwards to the UK. They had a house on St. Lucia and, with his wife, John would check on the Geest banana plantations during the winter. The couple always returned back to Molecey in late Spring. He worked to ensure that even in the hurricane prone islands of the Windwards banana growers were supported to get fruit to the UK. In 1966 they hosted the Royal Yacht Britannia on St. Lucia when the new Queen was touring the Caribbean. John would go on to establish a shipping line, the Geestline to get the bananas crop home and as well he controlled the ripening and distribution network in the UK. By the mid 1980’s when Geest was broken up the banana business was worth £450 million to him a year.

Total for 1 guest: £930
Total for 2 guests sharing: £1,300

Bathroom: Shared

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This room is in Molecey House.

On 11 December 1794 Charlotte Molecey, spinster of West Deeping, married John Twigge, a surgeon and apothecary in Market Deeping. Charlotte’s marriage would be the one to change the family surname for future Molecey heirs. On 19th October 1810 she gave birth to her son John, who would on the death of his Uncle John, in 1835, by a codicil of his will and an Act of Parliament, take Molecey onto his surname thus making him John Molecey Twigge Molecey. The Twigge family were originally from Derbyshire.

Total for 1 guest: £930
Total for 2 guests sharing: £1,300

Bathroom: Shared

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This room is in Molecey House.

Jack Riley was a printer in Boston and with his wife Louise had two daughters Bridget and Sally. Bridget was born in Forest Hill, South London in April 1931. Jack bought Molecey house and derelict mill in 1950, from the Fullard family who had been at the mill since 1896, when the last Molecey had left.

Jack and his family worked hard to develop and modernise their home in the spirit of the time adding a fitted kitchen, internal bathrooms and bringing in electricity. The restful calm of post war rural Lincolnshire was bucolic.The water lapped stone walls of the old house and mill created a timeless air.

Bridget painted a copy of the 1433 Jan van Eyck “Portrait of a Man” for her entry to Goldsmiths College. Moving to London in 1958 propelled her to international fame as a founder of Optical Art. He still keeps a watchful eye over the room today.

Total for 1 guest: £930
Total for 2 guests sharing: £1,300

Bathroom: En-Suite

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This room is in Molecey House.

John and Eliza’s fourth son Octavius Molecey Twigge Molecey had followed in his grandfather's footsteps and qualified as a surgeon in 1862. He took to the high seas bound for Australia as a ship's doctor. He was aboard Messer's Greens ship Agamemnon which had sailed from the East India docks in 1869.

Sadly he was to die at sea on 17 August 1869 of an aneurism of the aorta, aged just 25, and was buried in Melbourne cemetery. A table tomb carved in West Deeping of Stamford stone was sent to Australia by his "sorrowing mother, brothers and sisters" to mark his resting place.

Total for 1 guest: £930
Total for 2 guests sharing: £1,300

Bathroom: En-Suite

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This room is in Molecey House.

In 1896 Molecey mill was sold for £400 to William Fullard a corn miller, farmer and coal merchant from Thorney. Since Mr Fullard’s death in 1902 the business was taken over by his younger son, Frederick Charles Fullard. Having spent several years in America he returned with his wife, Annie, whom he met and married in San Diego and their daughter Florence born in America in 1888. By the 1911 census Mr and Mrs Fullard were the occupants of the mill and their daughter had married Ernest Witt. In 1919 they baptised their son Richard Fullard Witt in St. Andrew’s church.

Anyone who has ever looked into the history of the fens will have come across the story of the Dutch engineers, headed by Cornelius Vermuyden in the 1630s, who were persuaded to come over to our part of eastern England and employ their know-how in draining the fens. The Witt ancestors were some of these engineers. They settled in England and in the course of time they moved from the King’s Lynn and Thorney area to the very edge of the fenlands, the Deepings. Near the end of the 19th century and with a marriage into the milling Fullard family, the Witts came to live at Molecey Mill, on the Stamford Road, half a mile from Market Deeping but in the parish of West Deeping.

Total for 1 guest: £930
Total for 2 guests sharing: £1,300

Bathroom: En-Suite

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This room is in Molecey House.

Richmond in London was founded following Henry VII's building of Richmond Palace in the 16th century, from which the town derives its name. During the 18th century, Richmond Bridge was completed, and many Georgian terraces were built, particularly around Richmond Green and on Richmond Hill.

White Lodge in Richmond Park is the home to the Royal Ballet school for students aged 11-16. Full-time classical ballet training runs alongside the students’ regular academic classes. The ballet theme comes from Glenn’s six years of training in ballet.

Total for 1 guest: £930
Total for 2 guests sharing: £1,300

Bathroom: En-Suite

View more information here.