If, during your visit to Bath, a stay in a castle is an unrequited dream then you can be assured that you will not be disappointed with Bath Lodge. Originally constructed in 1806 as the principal of six gate lodges to one of the largest estates in England, Bath Lodge (originally called Castle Lodge) was uniquely built to parody, in miniature, the principal estate buildings of Farleigh Manor and Farleigh Castle. Situated in over four acres of informal gardens and woodland, which merge into the ancient deer forest beyond, we offer the finest touring location for the Bath area and the ancient Kingdom of Wessex to the South. Our rating by the Automobile Association of the UK of 5 , the highest award they can make to accommodation of this kind, says everything about the quality and standard of both the accommodation offered and the service provided. Those rooms in the original part of the lodge feature their own balconies, traditional four-poster or brass and enamel beds and incorporate the turrets as showers or coffee rooms. All of our rooms are unique and even those in the newer part of the house are decorated in character and furnished to a very high standard in keeping with the building as a whole. We encourage you to use the pictorial guide to the rooms and the general building and grounds, provided on this site. Listed below you will find the various sub-headings which will provide you with more information about the area, its attractions and various links that will help you to plan your stay in this, one of the most accessible, beautiful and interesting parts of the West Country.
Castle experience: Bath Lodge, with its castellated battlements, heraldic shields and portcullis offers a uniquely romantic, yet informal, 'castle experience'. Great care has been taken in the conversion, renovation and interior decoration of Bath Lodge to provide a sympathetic blending of this unique old building and the many modern facilities it offers. Breakfast is taken in the conservatory over-looking the gardens and woodland beyond, and if the weather permits that last cup of coffee may be drunk in the sunshine on terrace and followed by a casual walk to see how the waterfall and stream are running. The guest living room with its huge open fire-place, stone mantel and 19th Century bronzes provides the ideal place to take a relaxing drink after the rigors of a busy day touring the area, spending money in those luxurious shops in Bath, or enjoying a countryside walk.
All of the rooms within Bath Lodge have full en-suite facilities, direct dial telephones, remote colour televisions with satellite access and a free video service for those nights when all you wish to do is crawl between the warm blankets with a cold bottle of champagne. All rooms are non-smoking.
Richard & Sue have expressly set out to provide an informal yet professional environment in which to enjoy your stay. Bath Lodge will appeal to those romantics amongst us and to those who prefer the countryside over the town. Bath is only seven miles distant but at Bath Lodge you are a lifetime away from its noise, traffic and associated parking problems.
As you would expect, in addition to such outdoor pursuits as horse-riding, stalking, fishing or clay- pigeon shooting, we can provide you with the necessary support via our small in-house business facility to ensure you remain in touch — if you must!!!
Your tariff includes a full breakfast cooked to order. This comprises of cereals, juices and fresh fruit from the buffet followed by a full English breakfast and your choice of fresh coffee, teas or infusions. The portions are more than adequate enough to set you up for a busy day.
We have a licensed bar for residents. We operate a value for money policy by charging pub-prices for our beers, spirits and wines — no rip-off hotel prices!! We also benefit from a range of local pubs and restaurants within a few miles as well as Bath's many and varied restaurants. We will be happy to advise you on your choice of somewhere to eat.
A full list of services is as follows: all rooms are non-smoking and en-suite with: remote satellite colour tv; tea and coffee facility; direct dial telephone. Selectively some rooms have four-poster beds, traditional brass and enamel beds, balconies, ground floor access, twin beds, lounge area. Available on request valeting, office facility, hair-dryers, reading lamps, washing and ironing facility, horse-riding, shooting, fishing, golf (9 and 18 hole), local walking routes. In addition the hotel benefits from ample free secure parking and a licensed bar.
Fernleah was mentioned as long ago as 987 AD in a charter of King Ethelred. The name is Old English and means a clearing where ferns grew. At the time of the Doomsday Book in 1086 it was known as 'Ferlege' and was held by Almar of the great Norman Baron Roger de Courseulles. At this time six families are recorded cultivating a 'hide of land' with three acres of meadow and six acres of wood. By the 12th century it had become known as Farleigh and was owned by the Montfort family who sold it to the Burghersh's in 1337. It passed from them to Sir Thomas Hungerford, speaker of the House of Commons in 1370. The Hungerfords owned it, off and on, until 1686. It was in 1412 that the village became known as Farleigh Hungerford.
The original manor house was fortified between 1370 and 1380 by Sir Thomas, unfortunately he failed to get the necessary Royal consent for this but was pardoned for not doing so and a licence for such granted in 1383. Sir Thomas died in 1398 and was succeeded by his son Walter, a distinguished soldier and also Speaker of the House of Commons. He later became Lord Hungerford, Lord High Treasurer of England and in 1443 built a new church, St Leonard's now enclosed within the walls of the castle.
Two members of the Hungerford family backed the wrong side of the Wars of the Roses and lost their heads as a consequence. Farleigh was confiscated and given to George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV, who later, according to tradition drowned in a butt of malmsey wine. His daughter, Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, last of the Plantagenets, was born at Farleigh Castle in 1473. Accused of treason in 1541, she refused to lay her head on the block on grounds of innocence. The executioner was obliged to follow her round the scaffold chopping at her head and succeeded eventually in hewing it from her shoulders.
The Hungerfords faired badly too. Lady Agnes was hanged at Tyburn in 1523 for having had her first husband strangled, while Walter, Lord Hungerford was beheaded for treason in 1541. The castle was surveyed and found to have 'many fair chambers, a fair large hall on the head of which hall 3 or 4 goodly great chambers with fair and strong roofs'. The park was 'environed round about with high hills and in the midst a broad and deep running stream . . . very well set with great oaks and other wood.' The castle was garrisoned by Royalists during the Civil War but avoided the destruction which overtook so many castles.
The spendthrift Sir Edward Hungerford ruined the family and the castle, being forced to sell up in 1685. A Trowbridge clothier, Joseph Houlton, bought the Farleigh estate in 1702 but not the castle itself. His son, Joseph Houlton, junior, lived at the home farm, an old gabled house, which he turned into a gentleman's residence known as Farleigh House. He also created a 'grandly timbered' deer park of 120 acres. In 1730 he bought the castle and at once announced that he was pulling it down and selling the materials.
Farleigh House remained a modest one until Lt. Colonel John Houlton, a devotee of the Gothic Revival, succeeded to the estate in 1806. He enlarged and altered the house using the fashionable medieval style and spent £40,000 - perhaps a million pounds in today‘s values - on embellishments including hot houses, conservatories, stabling and six lodges. These included the Castle Lodge, now the Bath Lodge Hotel, built between 1806 and 1813, and comparable in scale and atmosphere to the Gloucester Lodge at nearby Lullington, although the Bath Lodge is more solid. It is an attractive building, redolent of Arthurian romance, and a perfect little fortress complete with towers, battlements and portcullis and the obligatory heraldic shields, in this case bearing the coat-of-arms of John Houlton and his wife, Mary Anne Ellis.
Approximately seventeen years ago the original restoration and conversion to an hotel was undertaken with sympathy, style and imagination by Mr John Morris, a retired local builder. The north extension was added in 1995 providing additional accommodation and it was this building which we took ownership of in November 2001. Since then we have continued to enhance the property whilst trying to be honest to its original character and feel — we hope you think we have been successful in this.
European hotels 
