HISTORY

In earlier days Sadler Gate had several busy coaching inns. Minimal time was allowed for passengers to seek refreshment and for horses to be changed, before the coachman’s horn sounded for departure. It was the Meynell family who built this splendid old coaching inn around 1680.

John Campion acquired the freehold in 1780. During the floods of 1842, the nine-year-old grandson of John Campion II was ‘launched in a wash-tub in the cellars’ – the purpose to save some vintage bottles of wine placed there by his great-grandfather!

The Bell InnSir Henry Harpur in his quest to get elected even had a list of 42 public houses, including The Bell, where voters benefited from his bribe at election time. Those who did not have the right to vote tended to riot in disappointment both at missing out on the ballot and also the free beer!

A new front was added by Ford and Weston as part of a decorative refurbishment in 1929 using black and white mock Tudor timbering rescued from other local sites. In 2014, the total restoration of this beautiful old building began. It is one of the few remaining privately owned traditional public houses in Derby. It is said to be haunted and has been featured on Sky TV’s ‘Most Haunted’ with regular ghost walks guided by Richard and Ed Felix starting and finishing at The Old Bell Hotel.

LOCATION

Near the top of Sadler Gate, it is on the left-hand side as you walk down from Iron Gate.