Now trading as the Hog at Horsley
The Bell & Castle has been trading in Horsley since at least 1870 and parts of the building are thought to be 600 years old. Over the years the pub had been extended creating a variety of architectural styles. The Stroud Brewery Company acquired the Bell & Castle after the takeover of Playne’s Forwood Brewery in Minchinhampton in 1897. The entrance to the pub was rebuilt in the early 1960’s – there were ‘West Country Ales – Best in the West’ ceramic plaques either side of the front doorway. The pub later passed to Whitbread ownership, before becoming part of the Enterprise Inns pub estate in the 1990’s.
In 2008 Enterprise Inns put the property up for sale with a clause that it could not operate as a pub. Enterprise Inns put 80 or so freehold pubs on the market with a restrictive covenant despite the fact that some of these pubs were doing a good trade. This certainly applied at the Bell & Castle where Simon and Dawn Winchester had turned the fortunes of the pub around. Despite this a company spokeswoman told the local press: “Please be assured that we never sell any of our pubs without a lot of careful thought and consideration. Unfortunately, we have worked hard to make this pub business viable over many years, but the level of customer support locally has simply been insufficient to allow this. Therefore despite our best efforts it has become necessary to consider the disposal option in this case.”
A petition from villagers protesting about the closure of their local pub was partly successful as Enterprise Inns removed the restrictive covenant from the sale. Horsley residents were outraged that the Bell & Castle could close so soon after the local Post Office shut in June 2008. A property developer put forward plans for a £1.25 million redevelopment of the site into a continental style licensed café with community shop and housing overlooking a new courtyard in the centre of the village. The Bell & Castle pub was described as a “miss-mash, a mess. The whole pub will have to come down.” The Bell & Castle site occupied a third of an acre, including the beer garden and the car park.
Luckily a Government planning inspector issued an enforcement notice to stop any further demolition after tiles were stripped off the roof and modern parts were knocked down without permission. In 2012 the Bell & Castle was put up for auction with a guide price of £575,000. It was acquired by Stag Developments and offered to the villlage as a community owned pub but the target figure of purchase fell short but was happily saved by a partnership with Greg and Caroline Saturley.
The new-look Hog freehouse opened its doors in May 2014 and has proved to be very popular and a real asset to Horsley. The present landlord, Luke Honeychurch, who took over the pub just after the Covid epidemic, is widely respected in the licensed trade as a strong voice for the injustices of the various taxes and restrictions imposed on pubs by successive governments. Incensed by the failure of the Labour government to support pubs by not addressing unfair business rates and other issues in the Chancellors’, (Rachel Reeves), budget and an unsatisfactory and ill-thought out apparent ‘U-turn’ to readdress the issues, Luke took to Social Media and posted a foul-mouthed tirade about how pubs were struggling to survive under the moniker of The Grumpy Landlord. The post went viral overnight, elavating Luke into a very sweary, but totally justified, effective ambassador for pubs, helping to bring clarity to misguided political policies that has devasted the hospitality industry for possibly decades. Luke has subsequently founded I.P.A. – the Independent Pub Alliance, which is now a respected voice helping the beleaguered pub industry.
Stroud News and Gloucestershire Advertiser, Friday 12th July 1895 – To be let: at Michaelmas, Bell and Castle Inn, Horsley, with thirteen acres of land adjoining. Fully licensed and free for spirits. Apply to Forwood Brewery, Minchinhampton.
Gloucester Citizen, Thursday 30th October 1902 – Theft from public house: At the Nailsworth Police Court on Thursday before Messrs Charles Payne and A.E. Dickinson – a woman named Annie Williams, of Chepstow, was charged with having, on October 24th, stolen a bottle of rum, value three shillings and six pence, from the Bell and Castle, Horsley. The evidence showed that the woman, in the company with a man, visited the public house, and after they had left, the rum was missed. The police had been unable to trace the man, but the woman was arrested by P.C. Gabb the next day, and the bottle of rum was discovered, untouched, in a field about 200 yards from the public house, having apparently been thrown over the hedge. The woman was sent to gaol for a month with hard labour.
Gloucestershire Echo, Thursday 23rd December 1909 – Andrew Longford, labourer , of Downend, Horsley, forfeited five shillings, for being drunk at the Bell and Castle, Horsley, on December 18th.
Courtesy Nailsworth Town Archives. The photograph had this information on the back: ‘The Bell and Castle in Horsley was recorded from the 1870’s and stands in the main street. William and Helen Harvey were the licensees for about 30 years and kept cows, pigs and chickens on an adjacent smallholding selling milk, butter and eggs as a sideline. Two black horses provided transport and these were very often in demand for funerals. William also owned the football field where the players changed in a cowshed. The inn has a popular bowling alley at the rear and a delightful garden. It has been extended and includes a restaurant.
The Bell & Castle pub sign was photographed by Chris Heaven in 1986. Reproduced with permission.
Stroud News & Journal, 30th December 1997 – We’ll drink to that! Regulars at the Bell and Castle at Horsley have been celebrating after their local was named as Regional Pub of the Year. Licensees Kevin Dursley and Carol Palmer beat 1,200 pubs throughout the country in the 1997 Enterprise Inns Pub Quality Awards to be one of just 24 winners.
Mr Dursley said that Mrs Palmer and he were absolutely delighted to have done so well, especially as they only took over as licensees last February. The performance of the pubs was monitored throughout the year, but final judging took place through un-announced ‘mystery visits’ by Enterprise directors and staff. Mr Dursley thought that their service standards, high quality of food and cleanliness may have attributed to their success. He added: We couldn’t have done this without our 14 members of staff – we all work as a team. We would also like to thank all of our customers for supporting us.
Stroud News, April 2004 – Racing flat out at 0.0017 mph: Fourteen garden snails went shell-to-shell at the Bell and Castle, Horsley, to raise £62 for Gloucestershire Royal Hospital’s Pied Piper Appeal for £800,000 to help kit out a new children’s ward scheduled to open in September. The snails took around 20 minutes to complete the three-foot course.
Above advertisement: 24th June 2008
April 2010. Note the missing West Country Ales plaque
April 2010
Stroud News & Journal, June 2010 – Second pub plan: A second planning application has been submitted for the partial demolition, rebuilding and refurbishment of the Bell and Castle pub in Horsley. It includes parking and the erection of three new dwellings. This comes after a bid submitted last year for the demolition of the pub and erection of six dwellings, and a shop was refused.
Stroud News & Journal, 14th July 2010 – Pub Plans Rejected: The Bell and Castle in Horsley will not be restored to its former glory after plans were rejected to extend and refurbish. Proposals were presented to Stroud District Council’s development control committee yesterday which included the building of three houses in the car park of the pub. This is the second time this year the pub has had planning permission refused after an application was rejected in February for the development of the whole site into housing. It was felt at the time it would have a detrimental effect on the surrounding listed buildings.
Similiary councillors felt that the height of the houses in the new application was overbearing on neighbouring buildings. Objections were also made over the design, scale and overall appearance of the houses, which would have been in the heart of the village.
Refusal was unanimous.
6th April 2011 – Appeal over pub plan: After parts of the old Bell and Castle pub in Horsley were removed, an appeal was lodged against enforcement action by Stroud District Council. The appeal, by the old pub’s owner Alex Kerr, will be dealt with at a formal hearing, at a date to be fixed. Mr Kerr believes the property is in such poor condition that it needs total rebuilding. Stroud District Council, however, disagrees.
Gloucester Citizen, 26th May 2014 – New hosts hoping to go the whole hog: (by Mike Wilkinson) Villagers turned out in droves to sample fine food and drink at their new pub which has risen from the ashes in spectacular style. The Hog in Horsley has a new identity and new people at the helm as it breaks from a troubled past which divided the village. For six years the former Bell and Castle was at the centre of a row between its owner, planning officials and villagers, and it fell into disrepair. But thanks to Stag Developments it has been rebuilt along with new homes, and a new landlord and landlady have been found.
After building their reputation at The Canteen in Nailsworth, Greg and Caroline Saturley have thrown their heart and soul in to The Hog. Horsley Parish Council vice-chairman Allan Caudwell sampled the new pub along with hundreds of others for the first time on Saturday. “I think it’s wonderful,” he said. “I think they will do very well. I think everybody was very pleased and it was absolutely heaving.”
Residents had proposed to run the pub themselves, but it has been taken on by Greg and Caroline in an amicable arrangement. “The old Bell and Castle Pub closed its doors six years ago, and slowly and sadly became derelict, standing forlornly without a roof,” said Greg. “The Horsley residents proposed to run the pub themselves, but were unable to raise quite enough money to buy and run it, so we eventually took it over.”
It opened its doors on Saturday at noon, with the Horsley choir appearing in the afternoon, the Horsley bell ringers ringing in the changes at 7pm, then the Bob Porter Blues Project playing in the evening.
A free house, The Hog can offer up to 10 local ales, lagers and ciders, all from local breweries including Stroud and Uley. Wherever possible the ingredients for the menu, which has a Mediterranean flavour, will be sourced within a 15-mile radius of Horsley. It also boasts a varied list of hand-selected whiskies and gins.
With a wide bar and open plan kitchen, the 600-year-old building now features a real hog’s head – Henry – on the wall, a large wooden hog, and a low table football set for children to play with.
Greg and Caroline Saturley
Stroud Life – 29th July 2015
Map Reference: ST 840980
Licensing details:
Owner in 1891: George Playne, Forwood Brewery, Minchinhampton
Rateable value in 1891: £12.10s.0d.
Type of licence in 1891: Alehouse
Owner in 1903: Stroud Brewery
Rateable value in 1903: £12.10s.0d.
Type of licence in 1903: Alehouse
Closing time in 1903: 10pm
Owner in 1997,2008: Enterprise Inns
Landlords at the Bell & Castle / The Hog include:
1885,1891 Richard Leonard (listed as the Bell Inn in 1885)
1897 John Farmiloe
1902,1906 Joseph Nelson Kennett
1909,1910 Charles Keen
1919 Harry Twitchett
1927 William Harvey
? Mrs Harvey (she was known affectionately as Auntie Annie)
1929 William Henry Austin
1950’s Bill and Doris Austin
1997 Kevin Dursley and Carol Palmer (from the Catherine Wheel, Bibury)
1998 Liz Golledge
1999 Gordon Kennedy-Bragg (from the Vauxhall Inn, Gloucester)
2000 David and Georgie Vening
2004 Tracey Coutts , Kirsty and Craig ?
2008 Simon and Dawn Winchester
2014 Greg and Carolie Saturley (The Hog)
2020, 2026 Luke Honeychuch (AKA ‘The Grumpy Landlord’)