Manager Silvia Ferreira

If there is a better Manager in the hospitality business then I for one have yet to meet her! Silvia came to work for the business as a housekeeper and has risen through the ranks entirely on merit. Silvia goes the extra mile for you without you even having to ask. Professional courteous and hard working she is the heartbeat of the hotel it’s that simple The superb levels of room presentation that we are so proud of throughout the hotel are entirely down to her exacting professional pride and to this day Silvia is actively working alongside her housekeeping team to keep the look and cleanliness of the rooms and the public areas right up to the very high bar she has set. But that is only part of the reason she is so invaluable to the Bridge Hotel.

Because with her manager’s hat on (or invariably a change of outfit so that she’s ready to greet the customers!) Silvia is ready on reception to welcome you to the hotel when she’s on duty and make sure that your every need is catered for. Anything from ironing a quick shirt for a businessman with an important meeting to arranging her trademark ‘kissing swan’ towels swimming on a bed of rose petals for a couple on a romantic break she always goes the extra mile to make sure that the experience you have at the Bridge is the best we and she could possibly make it. If there is something you need arranging then Silv will sort it! We always want to know if there is anything we can do to make your stay as near perfect as possible. With Silvia working for the business I am very confident that new guests won’t stay ‘new’ for very long and will join the lengthening list of returning customers that happily are voting with their feet and continue to make repeat bookings at our hotel. We have a terrific team of staff at the Bridge and whether it’s Matt or Silvia on duty you are going to be well looked after during your stay.

Chris and Don Arnold (Owners)

Every successful business needs an owner that cares deeply about the success of the enterprise and we certainly are fortunate to have two of them at the Bridge Hotel!


After a formative career as an aircrew officer in the RAF with many years spent doing Search and Rescue all over the world, Don and Chris (or Mum and Dad depending on who is describing them!) settled in Brandon in the early 1980’s and it wasn’t long before they were running a successful B and B and accommodation business which has grown in stages over the years and is now enjoying fantastic success as the highly rated Bridge Hotel Brandon.

Still both actively involved (as sprightly ‘eighty somethings’) in the running of the hotel, you are as likely as not going to see them around the place on any given day whether it be topping up the kitchen supplies with a timely shopping trip, changing a fuse in an appliance, chatting to our guests, locking the doors at night, showing an arrival or two into their rooms or having a well earned coffee in the hotel on a sunny day! They love being involved and the staff love having them around!

It’s a family business and the wonderful thing about the Bridge is that the staff are like family members too which can only be a testament to the founders and owners as somewhere along the line they must have instilled that family ethos in myself (Matt) as well!

By utilising the best of the business as it was and making the changes it needed as well we have concentrated on developing that ‘smaller’ but never the less professional atmosphere with the emphasis on our customers transitioning from being first visitors to then becoming regulars and thereby entering into that family spirit as well!

It’s a recipe for success and without them both we simply would not be here.

Abbie Purvis (Deputy Manager)

Abbie is a young woman who has worked for us since her schooldays when she came along as a waitress at weekends and holidays!

Bright friendly polite and professional she performs her duties with a smile and is a breath of fresh air to have around. Another team player Abbie is as at home running the reception desk as she is in the restaurant and café where she serves her customers with her delightful Geordie lilt!

We hope Abbie is with us for many years to come as she is a people person and will go a long way in hospitality

Rose Askew (Head Chef)

Rose is a vital part of our restaurant team and is worldly wise and a talented chef and is brimful of experience! If you are on business or staying at the hotel during the week for any length of time then Rose will soon know exactly what you like for your breakfast (and equally when!) and will provide those home from home touches that we hope make it a pleasure to stay at the Bridge. She is very welcoming first thing in the morning being an early riser and prides herself on looking after her business and regular guests and learning all their wants and needs! A career chef Rose spent many a long year turning out
enormous quantities of freshly made food at Thetford Forest Centerparcs where she was one of their finest cooks and came to us with a terrific reputation which she has certainly lived up to!

Rose loves her early starts and as her manager I simply can’t resist one of her breakfasts in the morning and therefore in order to justify such a treat I only let myself have one if I’ve just had a run around the forest before the guests get in and then I am really ready for one! Luckily I run most days! There is honestly no better start to the day. That’s the run AND one of Rose’s breakfasts! I hope Rosie is with us for as long as she wants to stay working as we all love having her at the hotel and she’s a great chef and a terrific team player too.

Natasha Talbot (Restaurant team)

A recent recruit but a fantastic one. ‘Tash’ is polite and professional and will take your weekend breakfast order and serve it with a smile. We hope she is with us for a long time to come

Maria Rodrigues (Head of Housekeeping)

If there is one clue as to how good Maria is at keeping the rooms in the Bridge Hotel absolutely spotless it’s this. Maria is Silvia’s mum! So if Silvia has a fantastic eye for detail and thorough cleanliness all round then it stands to reason that she learned that from her mother and the pair of them are just terrific at what they do for the business. It’s a highly valued contribution and every bit as vital as any one of the areas that go to make up the whole experience of staying at the Bridge. Maria is a tireless worker and combines her role at the hotel with another full time job wth a UK multinational company based in the region. She’s always smiling and loves our rooms as though they were her very own ones in her house. She makes sure that the rooms are turned around to be as in as near perfect condition as she can produce and it is an absolute pleasure to have her working as such an important member of our team. If we need a hand in the kitchen or anywhere other then the rooms she has direct responsibility for then she is the
first to volunteer and get stuck in! The young housekeepers we take on always have to come up to Maria and Silvia’s meticulous standards and yet she takes time to bring on the younger members of the team remembering that everyone has to start somewhere!

All in all the Bridge is lucky to have staff like Maria working for us and the winners are the guests who come back to stay time and time again in the lovely rooms that she is responsible for perfecting each and every time.

Steve Parlour (Handyman)

Steve is a vital cog in the wheel at the Bridge Hotel and also at the Riverside Café where his fabulous construction skills have played a huge part in the look and quality of our riverside space with the fire table in particular (which Steve built) being a case in point. There is literally no repair job that is beyond our Steve and although in the ideal world we’d never have thing go wrong of course in reality it happens all the time and there is no-one finer than Steve in making fast brilliant repairs across an enormous range of trades. One in a million we are lucky to have him as one of the team