Bell Inn, Main Road, Shurdington GL51 5XQ

The Bell Inn was built in 1801 as a small wayside inn and was extended about a century later. For over fifty years from 1890 it was run by one family and also acted as the village bakery. The pub garden and conservatory overlooks the village cricket ground.

Gloucestershire Echo, Saturday 11th October 1980 – Last orders: Landlady Phyliss James is about to call last orders – 31 years after taking over the pumps of The Bell, Shurdington. Tomorrow night, Mrs James and her army of regulars, many of whom have been suppling pints in The Bell since she took over, will have a traditional “knees-up” to mark her retirement. Mrs James was brought up in pubs. Her parents and grandparents were both in the licensed trade in Gloucester.

In 1949, after helping her mother and father in their pub, Mrs James and her late husband, Charles, took over The Bell. Since her husband’s death two years ago, Mrs James has stayed on in the pub, but now she is going to live with her daughter near Stroud. She said she was sorry to be leaving The Bell, but was looking forward to her retirement.

The Citizen: Friday, July 1^st 1983: New-look Pub – Outfitter Mr. Jack (76) yesterday re-opened the village pub where he had his first drink back in 1927. Whitbread-Flowers, the Cheltenham-based brewers, have spent £25,000 on a facelift at the Bell Inn, Shurdington. The pub is run by Mr Alan Markham and his wife Patricia, formerly of the Crown Inn, Tetbury.

Gloucestershire Echo, Thursday 8th October 1987 – Bell rings up £5,000: A hard working Shurdington pub has raised over £5,400 and helped more than 13 charities in the last five years. Cash-raising events organised by the Bell Inn have ranged from sponsored walks to fancy dress competitions, fetes and wine and cheese evenings. Donations made possible by the regulars’ efforts include ren riding hats for Riding for the Disabled, and nebulizers for Cheltenham General Hospital. “And recently, we have managed to donate two guide dogs for the blind,” says Edna Flew, the pub’s landlady. She adds: “The charoty organisation committee works very hard, and meets at the pub once a month.” Now, the Bell Inn is collecting for the Gloucestershire Meningitis Trust, and has already raised £1,000.

Gloucestershire Echo, Tuesay 13th August 1991 – Publicans’ funds pledge: The new owners of a Cheltenham pub say they will carry on the fund-raising activities for which the pub has become well known. Derek and Gaynor Fordham have moved to the Bell Inn at Shurdington after running a London pub but are glad they have made the move away from the capital. Gaynor said: “My husband is from Cambridge and I’m from South Wales so we feel more at home here than in London. We jumped at the chance to take a pub in Cheltenham,” she said.

Gaynor is a former dental nurse and her husband was with the Cambridgeshire ambulance service before they became publicans. The couple are preparing for the first big fund-raising event since they arrived at the pub last week. Gaynor said: “It’s a mixed six-a-side football match but there’s also a barbecue, skittles match and a car boot sale and all the proceeds are going to local charities. It should be good fun.”

Gloucestershire Echo, 30th January 1993 – Pub pulls in the pounds: Pub regulars have raised £3,300 for a special bed for the Pine View Hospice in the grounds of St Pauls Hospital, Cheltenham. Customers at the Bell Inn, Shurdington, took five months to raise the money with a series of events including a country and western evening. The bed is designed to each to ease the pain of bed sores for elderly people.

Gloucestershire Echo, 11th August 1994 – Festival lines up 30 beers: Beer lovers will be able to test tipples at a beer festival near Cheltenham. Landlord of The Bell Inn at Shurdington, Mr Peter Fryar, is lining up 30 beers and four ciders from across the country. The festival will run between 19th and 21st August.

In the early 2000’s the traditional bar and lounge were knocked through to create a larger drinking area. For a while the Bell Inn gained something of a reputation as a fine fish restaurant. However, when Nick and Sharon Green took over the running of the pub a review in the ‘Gloucestershire Echo’ put things firmly into perspective; “It has turned back into a traditional village inn. Many of the swankier dishes on the menu (like roasted monkfish on grain dauphinois with lemon and lobster beurre blanc, caviar and chives) have been replaced by good old-fashioned pub grub.”