The Old Bell is a hotel and restaurant in the Cotswold market town of
Malmesbury
Malmesbury () is a town and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England, which lies approximately west of Swindon, northeast of Bristol, and north of Chippenham. The older part of the town is on a hilltop which is almost surrounded by the up ...
, Wiltshire. The hotel is in the centre of the town, immediately next to the 12th-century remains of
Malmesbury Abbey
Malmesbury Abbey, at Malmesbury in Wiltshire, England, is a religious house dedicated to Saint Peter and Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul. It was one of the few English houses with a continuous history from the 7th century through to the dissolution ...
. The Old Bell is a
Grade I listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
because of its architectural and historic significance. Substantial parts of the fabric of the hotel date back to the 13th century when it was the guest house of the Abbey. It has a claim to be considered as the oldest hotel in England. It was built in about 1220 on the site of
Malmesbury Castle
Malmesbury Castle was a castle in the town of Malmesbury, Wiltshire, England.
Details
The town of Malmesbury was an important settlement in the early medieval period, both as a trading centre and as the site of Malmesbury Abbey. Early in the 12 ...
, which was obtained by the monks and demolished in 1216.
In 2021 the Old Bell was purchased by new American owners, Kim and Whit Hanks. Although from Texas, the new owners have historic family connections with Malmesbury. Immediately following the acquisition, the ground floor of the hotel was substantially refurbished as the first phase of planned improvements.
The hotel and Malmesbury Castle
The Old Bell was not the original name of the hotel: until 1798 it was known as The Castle Inn. It was thought, almost certainly correctly, to be built on the site of Malmesbury Castle.
In the 1120s Bishop
Roger of Salisbury
Roger of Salisbury (died 1139), was a Norman medieval bishop of Salisbury and the seventh Lord Chancellor and Lord Keeper of England.
Life
Roger was originally priest of a small chapel near Caen in Normandy. He was called "Roger, priest of the ch ...
was given control over Malmesbury - both the monastery and the town – and built a castle right next to the Abbey, much to the annoyance of the monks. Roger was a very powerful man because he was the chief minister of
King Henry I.
The castle had a relatively short life but witnessed some dramatic events. It was of strategic importance during the so-called
Anarchy
Anarchy is a society without a government. It may also refer to a society or group of people that entirely rejects a set hierarchy. ''Anarchy'' was first used in English in 1539, meaning "an absence of government". Pierre-Joseph Proudhon adopted ...
(1139–1153), a civil war between
King Stephen and his cousin, the
Empress Matilda
Empress Matilda ( 7 February 110210 September 1167), also known as the Empress Maude, was one of the claimants to the English throne during the civil war known as the Anarchy. The daughter of King Henry I of England, she moved to Germany as ...
. The castle was important to Stephen because it gave him a base in a part of England that was largely sympathetic to Matilda. In 1139 King Stephen came in person to Malmesbury in order to besiege and retake the castle which had been seized by Flemish freelance mercenaries. In 1144 forces loyal to the Empress Matilda besieged the castle and again Stephen brought an army to help his garrison. He successfully ended the siege and retained control of the castle. In January 1153 the son of the Empress Matilda,
Henry Plantagenet
Henry II (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189), also known as Henry Curtmantle (french: link=no, Court-manteau), Henry FitzEmpress, or Henry Plantagenet, was King of England from 1154 until his death in 1189, and as such, was the first Angevin king ...
, invaded England intending to seize the crown. His first act was to march to Malmesbury and besiege the castle. During the siege his men carried out a massacre of townsfolk and monks in the Abbey church. Stephen responded by bringing an army to Malmesbury to support the castle garrison. After some inconclusive skirmishing Stephen retreated and Henry proceeded to take control of the castle. The events at Malmesbury were a turning point in the struggle for the crown of England. Following Henry's success many barons changed sides and a few months later Stephen admitted defeat and recognised Henry as his heir. In 1154 Henry Plantagenet was crowned as King Henry II.
The monks always resented the presence of a castle which was, according to the historian
William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury ( la, Willelmus Malmesbiriensis; ) was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. He has been ranked among the most talented English historians since Bede. Modern historian C. Warren Hollister described him as "a ...
, "just a stone's throw" from the Abbey church. In 1216
King John, the son of Henry II, was desperate for money because he was fighting a war against both baronial opponents and an invading French army. He had been a frequent visitor to the castle but he agreed to sell the site to Abbot Walter Loring who immediately demolished the castle.
The oldest hotel in England?
Scholars consider that the function of the building erected by Abbot Walter in about 1220 was as the guest house. The Historic England official 'listing' of the hotel as a Grade I building, for example, describes the hotel as having been originally the 'Abbey Guest House'.
After the Dissolution of the Abbey in 1539 and the departure of the monks the building became an inn offering accommodation to travellers on the road from Bristol to Oxford. The claim that the Old Bell is the oldest hotel in England is based, therefore, on the strong possibility that there was more or less continuous use of the building as a place of hospitality from about 1220 to the present day.
In the Middle Ages there were frequent royal visitors to Malmesbury. After the demolition of the castle the kings and queens of England, and their senior courtiers, lodged in the Abbey guest house, in what is now the Old Bell.
Some royal itineraries survive and enable us to work out some of the kings and queens who were guests during the medieval centuries. We know, for example, that
Henry III stayed at the Abbey in 1222, 1235 and 1241.
Edward I
Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal o ...
was a guest on the night of 23 March 1282. On 8–10 October 1328 the Abbey accommodated the boy king
Edward III
Edward III (13 November 1312 – 21 June 1377), also known as Edward of Windsor before his accession, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from January 1327 until his death in 1377. He is noted for his military success and for restoring r ...
and his mother,
Queen Isabella, and her lover,
Roger Mortimer, soon after Isabella and Mortimer had deposed and killed
Edward II
Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir apparent to t ...
, the father of Edward III.
King Edward IV
Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in Englan ...
was in Malmesbury on 30 April to 1 May 1471, on his way to the
Battle of Tewkesbury
The Battle of Tewkesbury, which took place on 4 May 1471, was one of the decisive battles of the Wars of the Roses in England. King Edward IV and his forces loyal to the House of York completely defeated those of the rival House of Lancaster ...
(4 May 1471), one of the key battles of the so-called
Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), known at the time and for more than a century after as the Civil Wars, were a series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne in the mid-to-late fifteenth century. These wars were fought bet ...
.
The Old Bell and the English Civil War
Malmesbury was of strategic importance during the early stages of the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
between parliamentary and royalist forces in the 1640s. it was twice taken by storm by parliamentary soldiers and on both occasions the two sides clashed with artillery and muskets immediately outside the Old Bell.
The musket fire and artillery did considerable damage to the west front of the Abbey, next to the Bell. Many impact marks resulting from the fighting can still be seen on the masonry of the Abbey.
A parliamentary force commanded by Sir
William Waller
Sir William Waller JP (c. 159719 September 1668) was an English soldier and politician, who commanded Parliamentarian armies during the First English Civil War, before relinquishing his commission under the 1645 Self-denying Ordinance.
...
attacked the town on 21 March 1644. Waller's men attempted to take the town by marching up Abbey Row, the road on which the Old Bell stands. The royalist garrison fought back and there was two days of fighting in the immediate area of the hotel before the royalists surrendered on the morning of 22 March.
The royalists re-took Malmesbury, without a fight, later in 1643. Another parliamentary army, commanded by Colonel
Edward Massey
Sir Edward Massey () was an English soldier and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1646 and 1674. He fought for the Parliamentary cause for the first and second English Civil Wars before changing allegiance and ...
besieged the town in May 1644. Massey's tactics were almost identical to those of Waller. On the morning of 25 May a troop of musketeers marched up Abbey Row and overran the royalist troops who were positioned close to the Old Bell. After this the town remained under the control of the army of the parliament for the rest of the war.
Architecture
Exterior
The inn has been extended and altered over many centuries from a core built in 1220 for visitors to the Abbey, re-using material from the castle keep built by Bishop Roger in c.1130, which had been demolished in 1216 by permission of King John.
The abbey guest house was extended at the east end in the late 15th or early 16th century and the older structure partly refaced and re-roofed. Following the
dissolution of the monasteries, the house was referred to as the Steward's Lodging and was used for some time as weavers' lodgings: "every corner of the vast houses of office which belonged to the abbaye",
Leland noted in 1540, "be fulle of
lumbes to weve clothe yn" The present roofline and
dormer
A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window.
Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...
s date to the 17th century, and the west extension was added in 1908.
![The Old Bell, Malmesbury](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/The_Old_Bell%2C_Malmesbury.jpg)
The Old Bell was listed as a
Grade I listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
on 28 January 1949.
The four-bay inn is built in limestone rubble with limestone dressings.
Mullion
A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...
windows are a feature and the front is heavily covered in vegetation. The inn has a central cross-axial stack, with a 16th-century two-bay extension and two large gable dormers on the east side.
In the early 16th century, an additional property was attached to the eastern end of the guest house. From this point until the early 20th century the Old Bell site comprised two distinct properties: the guest house and later inn occupying the western section and a separate property, later known as Castle House, close to the Abbey. When looking at the Old Bell from Abbey Row it is easy to see the distinct nature of Castle House which still has its own front door set within a fine 18th-century 'shell' porch.
The hotel was remodelled in the early 20th century. In 1908 an extension was built to the east of the medieval guest house block. Today this Edwardian period extension provides the reception and the main restaurant for the hotel. At about the same time that the extension was built the Castle House ceased to be used as a separate dwelling and was integrated into the hotel building.
Interior
A prominent feature of the inn is an
ashlar
Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...
fire hood which is believed to be one of the earliest domestic-style ground-floor fireplaces, served by a flue, in England; it is dated to the initial building in 1220.
It was restored around 1980. The fireplace is important in the history of architecture in England. In the early Middle Ages fires simply burnt in a central hearth. By about 1200 wall fireplaces with integrated flues built into the structure of the walls began to appear in English castles. The fireplace in the Old Bell uses this flue technology pioneered in castles and may well be the earliest surviving example in England of a flue fireplace outside the context of a castle.
The central room to the first floor has a late 15th-century and early 16th-century compartmental ceiling with deeply moulded beams, and 17th-century
dormer
A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window.
Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...
s are cut through large trenched
purlin
A purlin (or historically purline, purloyne, purling, perling) is a longitudinal, horizontal, structural member in a roof. In traditional timber framing there are three basic types of purlin: purlin plate, principal purlin, and common purlin.
Pu ...
s.
The current stairway is relatively new, replaced some time after 1950.
A corridor connects the main building to the coaching house, which has six rooms on the ground floor, and several of the rooms are adjoining. Beneath the lounge to the inn is a vaulted cellar which has been reported to contain eight stone coffins.
The
dwarf wall
A wall is a structure and a surface that defines an area; carries a load; provides security, shelter, or soundproofing; or, is decorative. There are many kinds of walls, including:
* Walls in buildings that form a fundamental part of the supe ...
s with iron railings attached to the property are also part of the Listed Building designation.
Some notable owners
After the Dissolution of the Abbey, the inn became part of a property portfolio known as Malmesbury Manor. The Lord of the Manor of Malmesbury owned the inn. The Danvers family bought the Manor, including the inn, in 1631. From 1644 the owner was Sir
John Danvers
Sir John Danvers (c. 1585–buried 28 April 1655) was an English courtier and politician who was one of the signatories of the death warrant of Charles I.
Life
Danvers was the third and youngest son of Sir John Danvers of Dauntsey, Wiltshire, ...
. He was an MP for Malmesbury and a keen supporter of
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...
. In 1649 Danvers was one of
the men who signed the Death Warrant of King Charles I.
The property was inherited from the Danvers family by Lord
Thomas Wharton in 1682. Wharton was one of the leading politicians of the age and he played a key role in the planning of the
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...
of 1688. Wharton was notoriously corrupt. He used his influence in Malmesbury to turn the town into a '
rotten borough
A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act 1832, which had a very small electorat ...
', ensuring that elections to Parliament were entirely determined by bribery. Malmesbury remained a rotten borough until 1832. Thomas Wharton's son,
Philip Wharton, was even more notorious than his father. He lived a decadent lifestyle. He founded the original
Hellfire Club
Hellfire Club was a name for several exclusive clubs for high-society rakes established in Britain and Ireland in the 18th century. The name most commonly refers to Francis Dashwood's Order of the Friars of St. Francis of Wycombe. Such clubs, ...
in London and at club meetings Wharton and his friends indulged in heavy drinking and ceremonies mocking Christian beliefs. Wharton left England and, in his absence was found guilty of treason because of his political beliefs.
Between 1748 and 1896 the Old Bell, and the adjacent Castle House, was owned by the much more respectable Rushout family. The Rushouts leased out the two properties under the terms of long leasehold contracts. In 1896 the last owner of Malmesbury Manor, Lady Elizabeth Rushout, broke up the family estate and the sold the freehold for the Bell Inn to Joseph Moore, who was the landlord and leaseholder of the inn. Soon afterwards, Moore also bought the freehold on the Castle House and began the process of integrating the two properties into one single hotel building. Moore renamed the refurbished hotel, The Old Bell. A stone inscribed 'JM 1908' can still be seen on the hotel chimney at the east end of the building and this commemorates Moore's role as the creator of the building as it is today.
The hotel today and the Hanks connection
The Old Bell was purchased by Kim and Whit Hanks on 31 March 2021. Their company, Whim Hospitality, is based in
Dripping Springs, Texas
Dripping Springs is a city in Hays County, Texas, United States. The population was 4,650 at the 2020 census. Dripping Springs is a primarily rural town.
Geography
Dripping Springs is in northern Hays County at (30.191998, –98.085382). It is ...
, and specialises in event management, with a particular focus on weddings. The Hanks were regular visitors to the Malmesbury area before the purchase because Whit's family history research identified the town as the ancestral home of his paternal family. A pioneering Malmesbury industrialist, Walter Hanks, operated a mill below The Old Bell on the
River Avon in the late 1100s. Having bought the hotel, the new owners discovered that members of the Malmesbury Hanks family owned the leasehold on part of the building in the 1860s and 1870s.
In 2021, following the acquisition, the ground floor of the hotel was completely refurbished. This was the first phase of planned improvements which will continue in 2022. The initial refurbishment involved the redecoration of all the ground floor reception rooms, the creation of a new cocktail bar and a 'medieval' makeover to the restaurant, now named 'Saints and Sinners'. The hotel is decorated with antiques from the collection of the owners. One review described the refurbished ground floor as follows: "There's stacks of humour and personality: giant giraffes in the lobby, reclaimed religious relics everywhere, extravagant flowers and quirky wallpapers, mixed in with more trad antiques and velvet sofas."
Since purchasing the Old Bell, Whim Hospitality have also bought Abbey House and Gardens. This Tudor period house is famous for its gardens. There are plans to develop Abbey House as a boutique hotel while keeping the gardens open to the public.
, the hotel has a four-star rating and the restaurant has one
AA rosette
AA Limited, trading as The AA (formerly The Automobile Association), is a British motoring association.
Founded in 1905, it provides vehicle insurance, driving lessons, breakdown cover, loans, motoring advice, road maps and other services. The ...
.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Old Bell Hotel and Restaurant, the
Hotels in Wiltshire
Buildings and structures completed in 1220
Pubs in Wiltshire
Restaurants in Wiltshire
Grade I listed buildings in Wiltshire
Malmesbury
Grade I listed pubs in England