The Old
Bell Hotel and Restaurant is a hotel and restaurant on the edge of the Cotswolds in Malmesbury,
Wiltshire, England. Built on the remains of outbuildings of Malmesbury Abbey it
lays claim to being the oldest existing hotel in England, standing on
foundations dated to 1220, and is a Grade
I listed building. It is located in Abbey Row adjacent to the abbey, which
was built to accommodate scholars studying at the abbey. The bell of the inn sign refers to St Aldhelm's bell, the great bell in a peal of
ten that once hung in the former west end tower of the abbey church, noted by John Leland's Itinerary and in William Camden's Britannia.
Architecture
Exterior
The inn has been extended and
altered from a core built in 1220, probably by Abbot Loring, re-using material
from the old keep built by Bishop Roger c1130, which had been demolished on the
same site in 1216 by permission of King
John. An ashlar fire hood may be
the earliest domestic ground-floor fireplace, served by a flue, surviving in
England. 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 reroofed. 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 dormers date to the 17th century, and the west
extension was added in 1908.
The Old Bell was listed as a Grade I listed building on 28 January 1949. The inn was originally built in 1220
next to the abbey. In the late 15th century and early 16th century it was
expanded, and partly refaced and reroofed. A cloth mill was added around 1530. In 1908 it was again extended and
reroofed. The 4-bay inn is made
from limestone rubble and dressings. Mullion windows are a feature of the inn
and the front is heavily covered in vegetation. The inn has a central
cross-axial stack, with a 16th-century 2-bay extension and 2 large gable
dormers on the east side. The
doorway here is dated to the 18th century with an architrave and shell hood. On
the west side is the main porch and entrance.
Interior
The interior of the hotel and
restaurant is luxurious and illustrates a fusion of styles from Medieval to
Edwardian in the main building to Japanese in the coach house. The hotel has 33 rooms and 8 suites with
four poster beds and 3 single rooms. A prominent feature of the inn is a fine
ashlar fire hood which is believed to be one of the earliest domestic-style
ground-floor fireplaces, served by a flue, in England, dated to the initial
building in 1220. It was
restored around 1980.
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 dormers are cut through large trenched
purlins. The
current stairway is relatively new, replaced sometime after 1950. A corridor connects the main building to
the coaching house which has 6 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 8 stone coffins. The dwarf walls with iron railings attached
to the property are also part of the Listed Building property.
The hotel and restaurant has
been awarded the AA 3 Stars and AA 2 Rosettes. The restaurant, which serves Modern British Cuisine, is run by Head Chef Richard Synan.
Haunting
The Old Bell Hotel was
originally a coaching inn, it retaining many of its original features. The Old
Bell Hotel is listed as one of the most haunted Hotels in the UK, many of Derby
famous Ghost walks either start or finish at the Inn. The Old Bell Hotel is
believed to be haunted by several ghosts, a poltergeist in the downstairs
dining room has been known to throw items around, and a barmaid was once hit on
the back of her head by a wooden coat hanger when no one else was present.
The pubs most famous ghost is that of
a former employee, Mabel a linen maid at the time when the Old Bell was still a
coaching Inn. Her job was to strip the beds then take the sheets away to be
washed, replacing them with fresh ones. One day some passing solders on a
recruitment drive were buying drinks for the young men in the bar, and Mabel's
lover got drunk and took the Kings shilling. He was taken away to fight in some
war and was killed soon after. Mabel found that she was pregnant with her
lover's child when she heard of his death she committed suicide, hanging
herself in room six.
Mabel's ghost has been seen in the
area of the bar and in room 6, one of the waitresses was laying out the
cutlery, napkins, china etc. in the restaurant on the first floor, she left the
room for a moment and when she returned she found that everything on the tables
had been moved into a different order. There is only one door in and out of the
restaurant, and she swore that no one had entered the room as they would have
had to have passed her.
Guests that have booked in for the
night have found their clothes neatly folded at the bottom of their bed,
thinking that someone had been in their room when they were asleep, would
complain to the landlord only to be told that the staff were a lazy lot, and if
anybody was in their room in the dead of night that they were supernatural.
Recently a member of staff has
captured Mabel's ghost on camera after finishing there shift at the pub. Before
locking up the employee took some photos with their camera phone, one photo
captured the image of a woman.
One of the upstairs rooms in the Bell
is haunted by the ghost of a serving girl who has been seen on many occasions,
dressed in 18th century clothing with a white cap. It was thought that she was
murdered by the Jacobites in 1745, but this has yet to not been confirmed. The
serving girl's ghost usually appears when children are present and two
instances are recorded at the Inn.
During the 1930s, the landlord at the
time had a son who suffered from asthma. One afternoon he heard him coughing
and choking in his bedroom and so he ran upstairs and burst into the bedroom,
only to find a lady dressed in 18th century costume bending his son over and
patting him on the back. As the boy's father took over, the mysterious figure
simply vanished before his eyes.
In the 1950s and this same room was
being used as a nursery. The landlady was in the process of changing her baby here
one day and she had to turn away to get some nappy pins and cotton wool. As she
turned back, she saw a figure in 18th Century costume standing over the baby,
stooping as if to pick the child up. The mother rushed to pick her child up and
as she did, the ghostly figure completely faded away.
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