The Bell Inn has an attractive green tiled frontage with the words ‘Bell Inn’ in decorative tiles beneath the two front windows.
Cheltenham Original Brewery were the owners of the Bell Inn in 1891 and 1903. It was licensed as an ale house and had an annual rateable value of £25.10s.0d. increasing by four pounds and five shillings to £29.15s.0d. in 1903.
In the 1980’s the regulars at the Bell Inn raised a substantial amount for their nominated charity, the Intensive Care Unit and Cheltenham General Hospital. In September 1985 four overweight customers, including landlord Tom Reilly, took part in a gruelling 100-mile trek aimed at shedding pounds and raising pounds for charity. The route to Broadway and back was via Gloucester, Tewkesbury, Pershore and Evesham. Said Mr Reilly: “We are all a little overweight – the average is about 15 or 16 stone. Our walk, which is exactly 100 miles, will hopefully get a few ponds off us and raise money for the hospital. It was hoped that the charity walk would raise about £500, contributing to the grand total of £2,000 that the Bell Inn had raised for the I.C.U. over the previous two and a half years. A year later the donations had increased to £4,000 thanks to competitions, barbeques and a ‘swear bottle’ on the bar.
In August 2008 some residents of Belmore Place complained about customers from the Bell Inn and the Bath Tavern spilling out from the pubs “into their once quiet and peaceful private road.” Belmore Place intersects the two adjacent pubs in Bath Road. One resident, an unnamed male aged 43, told the ‘Gloucestershire Echo’: “We are at our wits end. There are only twelve houses in Belmore Place yet we have two pubs on our doorstep. We now have to put up with people smoking and drinking outside our houses late into the night. All we want is a quiet life without being disturbed by the constant noise coming from these two public houses.” Perhaps I might suggest that the residents who complained had actually chosen to live in Belmore Place where the two pubs had been trading for generations. Landlady Frances Reilly said: “We catch them at it every time and the bottle fills up pretty quick.
Punch Taverns owned the Bell Inn in 2005, but it is believed the pub is now owned by Heineken. The rapidly changing ownership and names of pub companies over the last few decades make determining who owns licensed premises difficult. The hanging inn sign of the Bell has the logo of Greenall’s, a defunct pub company that had evolved from a regional brewer in Cheshire, that ceased brewing to concentrate on their expanding pub national pub chain. Greenall Whitley was founded in 1762 at St. Helens and the Warrington Brewery was established in 1787. In 1978 Greenall Whitley purchased the respected Nottingham brewery James Shipstone & Sons, and closed it down. They will also be remembered for closing down the wonderful Simpkiss Brewery in Brierley Hill – a true Black Country institution – and literally pouring their beers down the drain.
Landlords at the Bell Inn include:
1856,1859 Valentine Cooper
1870 Henry Humphreys
1878 George Houghton
1883 Frederick Savory
1885 Mrs Esther Winn
1891 Esther Godwin
1902 John Carter
1903,1906 Henry Hoskins
1919,1927 Dan Lapper
1954 Mr and Mrs F M Long
1983 Jim and Betty Robbins
1985,1992 Thomas and Frances Reilly
1997,2012 Chris and June Evans
