The Old Bell Hotel

One of the most historic buildings in Malmesbury is the Old Bell Hotel situated right next to the west end of Malmesbury Abbey. It has not always been known as the Old Bell. Until 1798 the hostelry was called the Castle Inn and this name was a reference to the fact that it was built on the site of Malmesbury Castle which was a place of great strategic importance before its demolition in 1216.

The Bell is sometimes described as the oldest hotel in England and there is evidence to back up this claim. From around 1220 to 1539 the Abbey guest house was situated here and after the departure of the monks it became an inn. It has therefore been offering overnight hospitality to visitors for over 800 years.

The Precursor of the Inn/Hotel

The site of the Old Bell was probably part of the monastic enclosure from the time of Saint Aldhelm who transformed Malmesbury Abbey into one of Europe’s leading centres of scholarship in around 700. Building works in the grounds of the Bell in 2023 uncovered skeletal remains from the earliest days of the Abbey. In around 1118 Bishop Roger of Salisbury seized control of the Abbey, deposed the abbot and built himself a castle in the Abbey grounds. Bishop Roger’s castle was probably built on the site of the Old Bell: much to the annoyance of the monks. William of Malmesbury was an eyewitness and described how the castle was erected ‘in the churchyard itself, hardly a stone’ s throw from the Abbey’.

No trace remains above ground of the structure because the monks, who greatly resented the castle’s existence, completely destroyed all traces of the fabric following their acquisition of the site in 1216. However, we can surmise that the castle was substantial and built to a high specification because it was besieged in 1144 and 1153 but on both occasions the attackers were unable to take it by force. The chroniclers of the time mentioned its strength: Henry of Huntingdon described it as a ‘very high keep … reducible only by starvation’ and the author of the Gesta Stephani called the building ‘an impregnable work of skill’.

The first Inn

In the Middle Ages there were frequent royal visitors to Malmesbury. We know that in the 1150s Henry II stayed at the castle and was accompanied by his chancellor, Thomas Becket, in the days before Becket became archbishop of Canterbury.

After the demolition of the castle the kings and queens of England, and their senior courtiers, when visiting Malmesbury lodged in the Abbey guest house, in what is now the Old Bell. Some surviving royal itineraries show that that Henry III visited in 1222, 1235 and 1241. Edward I was a guest on the night of 23 March 1282. On 8–10 October 1328 the Abbey accommodated the boy King Edward III and his mother, Queen Isabella, and her lover, Roger Mortimer, soon after Isabella and Mortimer had deposed and killed Edward II, the father of Edward III. King Edward IV was in Malmesbury on 30 April to 1 May 1471, on his way to the Battle of Tewkesbury (4 May 1471), one of the key battles of the so-called Wars of the Roses.

Action during the English Civil War

Fierce fighting took place just outside the inn during the English Civil War outside the Old Bell. A force of parliamentarian soldiers commanded by Sir William Waller attacked the town on 21 March 1643. 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 parliamentarian army, commanded by Colonel Edward Massey 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.

After Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries

After the Dissolution of the Abbey in 1539, the Inn became part of a large property portfolio known as Malmesbury Manor. The aristocratic Danvers family bought the Manor, including the inn, in 1631. From 1644 the owner was Sir John Danvers. He was an MP for Malmesbury and a keen supporter of Oliver Cromwell. 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 of 1688. Wharton was notoriously corrupt. He used his influence in Malmesbury to turn the town into a ‘rotten borough’, 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 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.

Later Years

Between 1748 and 1896 the Old Bell, and the adjacent Castle House, were owned by the more respectable Rushout family, who leased out the two properties on long leasehold contracts. In 1896 the last owner of Malmesbury Manor, Lady Elizabeth Rushout, broke up the family estate and the sold the freehold of the Bell Inn to Joseph Moore, who was the landlord and leaseholder of the inn. Soon afterwards, Moore also bought the freehold of Castle House and began the process of integrating the two properties into one hotel building. He changed the name of the refurbished hotel from The Bell Inn to The Old Bell Hotel.

The Building

The building that can be seen today reflects the long history of the Old Bell and includes features dating from the thirteenth century to the twenty-first century. The oldest part of the building is the central block which dates back to the establishment of the guest house in around 1220. In what is now a bar at the heart of the hotel is an early thirteenth century fireplace surround for a chimney that uses a stone flue. It is made of fine ashlar limestone and the stone may well have been recycled from the demolished castle. This 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 guest house was extended in the 16^th century and a separate property later known as Castle House, was added at the east end 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 by the owner, Joseph Moore. 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. A stone inscribed ‘JM 1908’- for Joseph Moore- can still be seen on the hotel chimney at the east end of the building.

For more information visit the hotel website.