- An excavation at England’s oldest hotel revealed 24 skeletons and a mix of additional bones, dating to over 1,000 years ago, buried in the hotel garden.
- The Old Bell Hotel has been continuously welcoming guests since 1220 AD.
- The hotel site is next door to the Malmesbury Abbey, a prominent seat of learning from around 700 to 1500 AD.
One might forgive the Old Bell Hotel, England’s oldest operating lodging house at around 800 years old, for having some proverbial skeletons in its closet after welcoming guests for the better part of the last millennium. But instead of the closet, the Malmesbury hotel keeps skeletons in the garden—all 24 of them.
When volunteers from Cotswold Archaeology excavated the hotel’s grounds prior to a building project, they discovered two dozen skeletons and additional assorted bones in the hotel garden, all belonging to Anglo-Saxon men, women, and children dating to over 1,000 years old (specifically, sometime between 670 to 940 AD).
While The Old Bell Hotel is old—it was founded in 1220—it isn’t old enough to lay claim to the burial grounds. But it does sit next door to Malmesbury Abbey, a Benedictine abbey founded in 676 AD, right around the time of the burials.
“What we’ve got here is not a collection of the bodies of monks,” Tony McAleavy, Malmesbury Abbey historian and local resident, told BBC. “It’s men, women, and children.”
There is an oral history of the monastery and the town’s Saxon-based past, but the new discovery provides solid evidence of an active Anglo-Saxon community before the abbey was built. “We knew from historical sources that the monastery was founded in that period,” Paolo Guarino of Cotswold Archaeology said in a statement. “But we never had solid evidence before this excavation. The discovery includes remains from the Middle Saxon period, marking the first confirmed evidence of 7th to 9th century activity in Malmesbury.”
The find offers fresh clarity on the past. “The exciting discovery intertwines history with the present, providing a rare insight into the lives of Middle Saxon period Malmesbury residents,” Kim and Whit Hanks, the owners of The Old Bell Hotel, wrote in a separate statement. “We are honored to act as stewards of local history—a responsibility we take very seriously. We are thrilled about the findings being revealed today. It’s fitting that the earliest remains have been found near the abbey, on the grounds of England’s oldest hotel.”
McAleavy believes the remains show traces of the community that supported the monks. “It’s going to shed new light on the way Malmesbury Abbey worked in its golden age,” he said.
“Contrary to expectations,” a Cotswold Archaeology spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “these graves are positioned not in the believed location of the medieval cemetery—to the south of the abbey—but west of the former cloisters. Even more astonishing is the identification of Saxon remains, a first for Malmesbury, where no physical evidence of early monastic life had been found before.”
The abbey’s origins come from the early 7th century, according to Historic England, as part of a “Saxon hilltop settlement.” It’s believed an Irish monk established a hermitage for teaching local children in 637 AD, which then became the Benedictine monastery in 676 AD. Athlelstan, the first King of England, was buried at the abbey in 941 AD, raising the town’s already-growing prominence. That led to the construction of a mint and one of the largest libraries in Europe, giving the town a reputation as a seat of learning.
The hotel, which was built to house dignitaries visiting Malmesbury Abbey’s library, continues to serve guests to this day. Hotel marketing says traces of every century are found throughout the hotel, including a hooded stone fireplace in the bar dating to 1220.
“There is plentiful archaeological evidence that medieval walls were constructed directly over, and sometimes even through, burials,” the Cotswold Archaeology spokesperson said. “It’s likely that The Old Bell’s builders encountered some human remains while laying the foundations but chose to proceed with their work regardless.”
Eight-hundred years is a long stay ... but 24 guests have finally checked out.
Tim Newcomb is a journalist based in the Pacific Northwest. He covers stadiums, sneakers, gear, infrastructure, and more for a variety of publications, including Popular Mechanics. His favorite interviews have included sit-downs with Roger Federer in Switzerland, Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles, and Tinker Hatfield in Portland.
