The Crown Inn at Petty France is first mentioned in July 1692 when it was owned by William Hurne. It was then described as an ancient inn. The earliest parts of the present Bodkin House have their origins in a 12th century priory which was destroyed by Henry VIII during the dissolution of the monasteries. The majority of the present building dates to about 1650. It served as a Coaching Stage from Bath to Cirencester and Stroud, and is mentioned in many accounts, most noteably Jane Austen in her book ‘Northanger Abbey. She is said to have ate and drank at the inn as a child. The stables are opposite, now converted to houses.
The Crown Inn is mentioned again in 1740 when Thomas Hurne was the owner, but around 1805 it seems to have been bought by the Duke of Beaufort. There is a reference to the Beaufort Arms Inn at Petty France being used as an auction house in 1834 (see Kings Arms, Didmarton). Not long after it closed, possibly as a result of direct competition with the Dunkirk Inn located a quarter of a mile further up the road.
By 1851 the property had been converted into five houses and The Beaufort Arms was in residential use at the time of the 1891 and 1903 licensing surveys of Gloucestershire.
It was sold again in the 1970’s and was returned to commercial use as the Bodkin Restaurant & Hotel. In 1984 it was re-licensed as Bodkin House Hotel.
Map Reference: ST 787855
Petty France and Dunkirk
As mentioned in a previous Boundary magazine, Jane Austen was less than complimentary about her
stay at Petty France, in South Glos.: – “There was nothing to be done but to eat without being hungry,
and to loiter about without anything to see.” However, it wasn’t always thus, and the location has had
many brushes with infamy and celebrity. The original history of the settlement is lost in the midst’s of
time, but prior to the Reformation of 1535, it was linked to the Abbey of Pershore. Local legend has it
that there’s still an old tunnel connecting the dwellings on either side of the highway.
Starting at Bath (Aqua Sulis) the A46 that runs through Petty France now culminates at Cleethorpes, but
originally terminated at Lincoln (Lindum Colonia), following parts of the Roman Fosse Way. This wasn’t
the only route north, at nearby Dunkirk the road forked to Cirencester (Corinium) on what is now the
A433, also on parts of the old Fosse Way. Fosse is derived from the Latin fossa meaning ditch, and it was
this that formed the western boundary of the Roman Empire during the first decades of occupation, it
went as far south as Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum). It became a road in the following two centuries. In
1743, when Turnpike Trusts were all the rage – originally intended to improve road conditions – the
route between Bath and Cirencester became a toll road with Petty France’s nearest toll gate being at
Dunkirk Farm, at the crossroads with Hawkesbury Upton and Badminton, just a few hundred yards
north.
Dunkirk Farm is first mentioned in 1572 deeds belonging to the Beauforts, and the hamlet at one time
had an ancient hostelry called the Dunkirk Inn, which was rivalled by the Crown Inn in nearby Petty
France which had been there since ‘time immemorial’. Sometimes called Petty France Inn or Old France,
the Crown eventually had a rival across the road called the New France, or Beaufort Arms, which dated
from 1777. The French connection pre-dates the coming of the Huguenots. Both inns had stabling for
the coaching trade. The settlement really took off three years later with the building of a hunting lodge
called Rock House for Charles Jenkinson, 1 st Baron Hawkesbury 1 st Earl of Liverpool, a prominent
politician of his day and a confidante of George III. He was succeeded by his son Robert Banks Jenkinson
who inherited the titles and became Prime Minister in 1812, after Spencer Perceval was assassinated.
Rock House became a kind of Chequers for Banks Jenkinson until his death in 1827, when it passed to his
brother, another politician. A century later they were followed by man and wife politicians Lord and
Lady Apsley, when one succeeded the other as Bristol Central MPs.
Prior to being a turnpike, the road was occasionally stalked by highwaymen while other crooks
abounded. One turnpike toll keeper was fined for illegally demanding tolls and others were found guilty
of toll dodging by driving onto adjacent farm land; this was at a time when people were transported for
life for stealing a bag of oats. Turnpikes died out in the 1880s after county councils took control of the
roads. The Beaufort Arms is now called Bodkin House Hotel, and Rock House is now the Cotswold Manor
House – a haven for hen parties…
Mark Steeds, Pub Landlord & Local Historian