The Talbot Hotel
Oundle, Northamptonshire

OVERVIEW

The Talbot Hotel is a Grade I listed former coaching inn built in the early 17th Century. Once a place of religious housing rebuilt into a Jacobean guest house and inn, and with rumoured connections to Mary Queen of Scots, what ghosts and spirits haunt this incredible historic building? Join us at this Brand New Location to find out!

 

HISTORY

The Talbot Hotel was built in 1626, but parts of the location can be dated back to the early 1500s. Prior to this place being a coaching inn, the building was used by the Guild of Our Lady of Oundle, where monks would've lived and traded with merchants. Such local Guilds were endowed with considerable amounts of property and cash by wealthy citizens, and the income from the assets was used primarily to pay for the livelihoods of priests who prayed for their patrons’ souls at chantries. As the number of subscribers to the Guilds increased, so did their assets and income. Spare money was invested into schools, hospitals and almshouses for the poor, but also in more property, creating an upward spiral of wealth.

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The Tabard or Tabret as it was called, would've been a particularly lucrative asset for the Oundle Guild. However, following Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries, the regency council of the boy-king Edward VI, seized the assets of a whole range of other religious bodies, including Guilds like the one at Oundle. All its lands and buildings were taken by the Crown in Easter 1548, and sold on the
3rd April 1550 to two London property dealers, who then sold the buildings on. The earliest evidence that the Inn was among the Guild properties featured in these transactions is found in a survey completed in 1565, known as The Oundle Terrier. In an entry listing titled 'Bury Street', Thomas Power is stated as owning a guest house or tenement called 'Le Tabret'. He held possession of the house until his death in 1572, when it passed on to his wife Susan. In his Will he states he owned a place 'cawled the tabard, now in the occupation of Wyllym Dynnys'. There no later references to either the Le Tabret or The Tabard, and so we don't know which was the correct name during this time.

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The first introduction to The Talbot name was written in 1617 in a decree of the Justices to the High Constables of Corby, where the citizens of Oundle were ordered to deliver 100lbs of butter to The Talbot for the King's larder. The next mention was in an order by the High Sheriff of Northamptonshire, that proclaimed that wealthy citizens who had failed to pay a fee to the Crown in lieu of military service, were to meet with the King's commissioners on the 17th September 1631 at the sign of The Talbot in Oundle.

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In 1626 The Talbot Inn was rebuilt extensively and expensively. The stunning façade alone is worthy of Pevsner's praise for its immaculate style. However, the most interesting aspect of the rebuilding is viewed from the courtyard where much of the structure is said to have been taken and used from the nearby Fotheringhay Castle, once a medieval beauty and royal palace. It was at Fotheringhay Castle that Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded in 1587. When Mary's son James VI of Scotland ascended the English throne in 1603, he sold Fotheringhay into private hands. The castle was still intact by 1625, but was left abandoned. It was gradually demolished and elements of the building's fabric were reused in various other buildings, including the rebuilding of The Talbot Inn according to tradition. Despite no records of materials from the castle being purchased and reused for the rebuilding of The Talbot Inn, one story claims that the developer William Whitwell obtained the windows of the castle's Great Hall, as well as the oak staircase which is said to be the same staircase Mary Queen of Scots walked down to her execution. Historians believe the windows are indeed from the Great Hall of Fotheringhay Castle, but the oak staircase? They aren't completely convinced, as it resembles more of a Jacobean design than a royal grand staircase. But that hasn't stopped the stories of her connection to The Talbot Hotel, from her ghostly apparition seen standing on the stairs, to the imprint of a royal crown on one of the upper staircase posts said to have been made by Mary herself with her signet ring, as she walked down the stairs to her execution in anger. Another legend has it that her executioner stayed at The Talbot Inn the night before her death, and dined on pigeon pie. The rebuilding of The Talbot Inn is accredited to William Whitwell, who is said to have rebuilt most of Bury Street, and renamed it to the more fitting New Street.

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Very little is known about The Talbot Inn during the 1700s. In 1755, some of The Talbot Inn's guests came from Ireland, and were likely horse dealers who came to English markets. They left their mark on the Inn with love messages scratched onto some of the 500 year old window panes in the South section of the building, and they're still visible today, with the names of Fanny Nunn of Enniscorthy, County Wexford, and Polly Winter of Cork. It's not clear who owned The Talbot Inn around this time, but we know that the innkeeper was a man called Thomas Ellis, who prospered well here in the 1780s. However in 1790, the freehold of The Talbot Inn was advertised for sale by auction in the local press, featuring a garden and stabling 'near one hundred horses'. About 20 years prior, a wealthy man called John Smith resided in the town and at the age of 30 he built a brewery. It's likely that due to the sale of The Talbot Inn that he became new the owner of the establishment. In 1791, a passenger-coach operator in Oundle called George Smith (possibly related to John Smith) launched 'The Brothers', an elegant coaching business that he ran with four other Oundle gentlemen, with one being Thomas Ellis the innkeeper at The Talbot Inn. It ran between Oxford and Peterborough three days a week, with one of the stops being at The Talbot. In August 1796, Stephen Hodges who ran a rival coach company became the new innkeeper of The Talbot, but fell back into possession of the Smith family once more up until 1922.

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One afternoon in November of 1829, Oundle had a huge surprise, when the Duke of Wellington stopped at The Talbot Inn to changeover horses on his way to Woburn Abbey. At this time he was also the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Another surprising figure who was given a hero's welcome was Lieutenant General James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan. He was a member of the Light Brigade who fought in the Crimean War. He arrived at Oundle Train Station in January 1855 and was given a great reception at The Talbot Hotel, with then owner John William Smith reading an address of appreciation on behalf of the community.

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Heading into the 20th Century, the Smith family ownership of The Talbot Hotel began to spiral downwards. Within the first 5 weeks of World War 1, Jack Smith the owner's son was killed at the Battle of Marne aged just 25. His grief was amplified when his younger brother Edmund Percival Smith was killed at Gallipoli on the 1st May 1915, aged 51. 9 months later, Jack suffered a heart attack and died suddenly on the 14th February 1916, aged 57. His widowed wife Mary took control of the business, but with no male heir she knew the building had to be sold off.

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As of 2009, The Talbot Hotel is run and owned by The Coaching Inn Group, a company focused on refurbishing and revitalising historic coaching inns for the modern age, whilst keeping the historical aspects intact.

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GHOSTS & HAUNTINGS