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Angel-Hotel |
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This
graceful building is a real
beauty. Benefiting from late 17th and
early 18th century improvements, the main building is Georgian in
character and is finished in stucco. Simple moulding has been used to interrupt the simplicity of the
upper elevation. Featuring elegant curved
sash windows, the ground floor bays support a balconette
accessed by a pair of French windows. The frames for these first-floor
windows are crowned with
architraves supported by
consoles. Across the building, a
table is utilised to display the name of the establishment.
The word 'Angel' can also be seen above the archway for which a plaque
informs the curious visitor that through this Warren James, leader of
the Foresters in the Dean Riots, was brought on June 15th 1831 after his
capture. Another information board
states that the Angel Hotel dates from the 16th century. This may indeed
be true but most references seem to point towards the early 17th century
for this building. There's no doubt that an inn existed in Coleford as
early as the 15th century but whether this was the Angel Inn [as it was
originally known in addition to the Great Inn] or the Feathers - or even
the King's Head - is another matter. William Roberts was one
of the early landlords at the Angel Inn and was succeeded by Thomas
Holder in around 1810. His wife died at the hotel in 1826. He continued
at the Angel Hotel - he was still listed as the innkeeper in Pigot's
trade directory of 1830 which lists the Angel Inn as a posting house.
Thomas Holder left the hotel in the 1830's and died in Gloucester in
1841. In
Robson's directory published in 1837, the Angel was
described as a Commercial and Family Hotel and Posting House. William
Batten was the licensee at this time. During the late 1850's
and into the next decade, the hotel keeper was James Dennis who, born in
1817, hailed from the Berkshire town of Newbury. Five years younger, his
wife was more local to the area having been brought up in Cheltenham.
The couple employed a small army of people to run the busy hotel. Cook,
waiters, domestic servants, ostler and chambermaid all kept themselves
busy to keep the customers happy. James Dennis erected something akin to
a gallows sign for the Angel Hotel when he displayed both the hotel's
name and that of his own on a long board that stretched across to the
Market House. James Dennis remained in the licensed
trade when he and his family left the Angel Hotel. They moved next to
the
Railway Inn where James traded as a wine merchant. He held a sale on
January 1862 in which he disposed of the "whole of the household
furniture, wines and spirits, horses, carriages, harness, fat pigs,
live and dead stock, and numerous other effects in and about the
hotel." James Griffiths arrived
as licensee at the beginning of the 1870's. He had previously kept the
Fountain Inn at Parkend. Born in 1829 at Hucclecote to the east of
Gloucester, he managed the Angel Hotel along with his Churcham-born wife
Elizabeth. They employed Elizabeth King as a barmaid, Sarah Morris as a
waitress and Jane Brown as a general servant. The latter remained in
employment here and was later promoted to cook. James Griffiths was often
listed as both hotel keeper and farmer and he left the Angel Hotel in
1888 to concentrate on farming. In the early 20th century, by
which time he was a widower in his 70's, he was still in business with
his grandson Richard Sheraton at Wain Farm in Clearwell. George Holmes succeeded
James Griffiths as licensee in 1888. In the census conducted three years
later he was documented as a hotel proprietor and tanner. Born in 1851
in the Wiltshire town of Marlborough, he lived on the premises with his
wife Elizabeth. A ratebook compiled in the same year records Edwin Payne
as the owner of the Angel Hotel. At this time
future licensee Edward Highley was the hotel keeper and butcher at the
nearby White Hart Inn. He responded to an 1898 advert for a lease on the
Angel Hotel which was owned by the widow of Edwin Payne. The 12 bedroom
hotel came with a 35 acre farm. Another licensee of a
neighbouring pub would later move to run the Angel Hotel. Percy Paddock
kept the King's Head before taking over at the Angel Hotel. He became
something of a local cult because whenever he wanted to get rid of his
customers and lock up he would remove his wooden leg! He kept the hotel
for around forty years. Advertising the
fact that the hotel was famed for its excellent cellars and good food,
the Angel Inn sold both Bass and Worthington beers on draught during and
after the Second World War.
© Copyright. Image supplied by
Digital Photographic Images. |
