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The enquiries into how long the enterprise had been operating under the current ownership established that many of the ‘younger’ operations, particularly for 2001, involved a change in ownership. For example, of all the categories in 2001, BB enterprises are more likely to be a new/recent business based in a ‘modern’ house. This is reflected in the higher presence of cavity wall insulation and double glazing, which is indicative of a less traditional building design than that commonly found in the area; similarly self-catering premises. The following selections drawn from the 2001 data serve to highlight various differences between the categories of enterprise:

Duration	Category
1–5 years	serviced accommodation 28%; arts and crafts 20%
10–16 years	63% of the food producers
20+ years	serviced accommodation 30%; majority of inns, attractions and arts & crafts have been operating for over 25 years; a quarter of the food producers operational for over 80 years

Garay and Font’s (2012) study found that 55% of the enterprises in their sample had been operational for 10 years or less, which is similar to the 62% of the 2001 audits. Restaurants, particularly cafes, attractions and the self-catering sector evidence the highest propensity for new developments in the last 5 years, reflecting the popularity of the area and the growth of the self-catering sector in the 1990s. In the self-catering sector approximately one in five properties (19%) had been built during the 1990s. In contrast, hotels and inns are far less likely to be in contemporary properties. An indicator as to the long-standing of these operations is demonstrated in the findings of the audits:

• 40% of the properties have ‘always been’ operating as designated; and

• 45% of the properties were previously homes.

As one local authority noted:

In many cases, hotels and guest houses are the result of conversions of large country houses and buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest which might otherwise have become redundant or been poorly maintained. (SLDC, 1997, para 4.7)

The age of many of these properties in rural locations holds an added ‘benefit’ in that repairs and renewals help to maintain and develop traditional skills of restoration of old buildings; this feeds into other areas of repairs, renewals, extensions and so forth. That such skills are largely available is partly due to the work of the National Trust, which has developed a set of principles for restoring or maintaining their buildings (see Jarman, 2000) and fostering the development of traditional building methods.