The Old Bell Hotel and Attached Front Area Walls and Railings

Details

MALMESBURY

ST9387 ABBEY ROW 758-1/4/13 (North East side) 18/01/49 The Old Bell Hotel and attached front area walls and railings (Formerly Listed as: ABBEY ROW (North side) Bell Hotel)

GV I

Abbey Guest House with first-floor hall; cloth mill, now hotel. Early C13 abbey guest house; late C15/early C16 house added to E end and rest altered, partly refaced and reroofed; cloth mill from c1530, roof altered with dormers added C17, 1908 reroofed and extended to W. Limestone rubble and dressings, rendered front, squared coursed rubble W range; E cross axial stack with diagonally-set shafts, central ridge stack with paired octagonal shafts, and W stack in internal angle with 4 octagonal shafts; stone slate roof with tiled cross-gabled W end. PLAN: 4-bay C13 Guest House with central cross-axial stack, with C16 2-bay E extension, and C20 addition to W end. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, attic and basement; 7-window range. The C17 E range has 2 large gable dormers, with a central early C18 doorway with architrave and shell hood, and a right-hand end gable has a rear first-floor 3-light canted oriel with moulded base and leaded lights. The central range has 3 separate 1908 gabled dormers, with a left-of-centre early C19 Doric doorcase with attached columns, entablature and segmental arched pediment, with a 6-panel door with overlight; a large 1908 left-hand porch has paired pilasters to a cornice and fretwork balustrade with paired urns, round-arched doorway with double half-glazed doors. Mullion windows, with ground-floor transoms and reserved chamfers with metal casements, 2-light windows attic windows to E gables, 3 central dormers have 3-light timber casements, all renewed 1908 except first-floor right-hand end. 1980 W range has a left-hand gabled cross wing with coped gable and kneelers and finial and a large canted 2-storey bay, large mullion and transom windows, and a large right-hand 3-light gable dormer. Rear elevation has 3 gable dormers, and 2 first-floor C15 2-light mullion windows with metal casements. The 1908 range, in Jacobean style, has a rear half-hipped gable.

INTERIOR: details include a very fine c1220 ground-floor ashlar fire hood, restored c1980, with on the first floor above, the moulded jambs with capitals of another C13 incomplete fire-surround; to the right of the lower fireplace are 2 stone steps of a former winder stair. First-floor central room has a late C15/early C16 compartmental ceiling with deeply-moulded beams; roof partly obscured, the C17 E dormers are cut through large trenched purlins. C20 entrance to the W extension has black marble shafts to paired round arches within a semi-circular relieving arch. Late C20 stair. A fragment of wall painting is reported either side of the attic fireplace to the central chimney, with red feather and scroll friezes, possibly part of a larger C13 scheme of wall decoration. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Attached dwarf walls with iron railings to front areas, and piers with ball finials to W end. HISTORICAL NOTE: Probably built by Abbot Loring (Abbacy from 1208-1224), on the site of and re-using material from the old Keep built by Bishop Roger c1130, and demolished in 1216. A reported vaulted cellar beneath the lounge contains 8 stone coffins. The ashlar fire hood may be the earliest domestic-style ground-floor fireplace, served by a flue, in England. At the time of Dissolution, the house was probably that referred to as the Steward's Lodging. Bought after the Dissolution by William Stumpe, (see Abbey House, qv) and used for cloth mill, though with little alteration. (Stirling D: Secular medieval buildings in Malmesbury, Wilts, 1150-1547: 1986-: 12; Victoria History of the Counties of England: Crowley DA: Wiltshire: 1991-: 157).

Listing NGR: ST9323087333

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

460674

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Stirling, D, Secular Medieval Buildings in Malmesbury Wiltshire 1150-1547, (1986), 12
Crowley, B A, The Victoria History of the County of Wiltshire, (1991)

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