A BITTER seven-year boundary dispute between the owners of a North Yorkshire manor house hotel and their neighbours was yesterday resolved in favour of the hoteliers.

Only a fraction of an acre was at stake in the row between David and Anne Johnson, of the 18th Century Hartforth Hall Hotel, Gilling West, near Scotch Corner, and Mark and Sandra Stephenson, who live at a neighbouring property.

But the legal costs bills, which must now be paid by the Stephensons, are likely to run into tens of thousands of pounds.

Three Appeal Court judges upheld the Johnsons' case that the boundary line between the two properties lies along the line of a fence put up by the hoteliers as long ago as December 1987.

Mr and Mrs Stephenson, who moved into the neighbouring property in Hartforth in 1993, insisted the fence had been erected too far south, but their appeal against an earlier county court ruling was dismissed.

In 1986, the Hall was sold to Mr and Mrs Johnson, who turned the Georgian mansion into a hotel.

Mr and Mrs Stephenson bought No 1 Hartforth and put up their own fence to the north of the one erected by Mr and Mrs Johnson in 1987, but the hoteliers promptly removed it and the litigation began.

In July last year a county court judge ruled there had been an "implicit agreement" between the Johnsons and the previous owner that the 1987 fence marked the boundary between their land.

In the Appeal Court, Mr Justice Bennett said the judge had been entitled to reach the conclusion he did and Lord Justice Pill and Lord Justice Clarke agreed that the Stephensons' appeal be dismissed.

Mr and Mrs Stephenson were ordered to pay the legal costs of the appeal, along with most of the costs of the four-day county court hearing.