Lygon Arms

The Lygon Arms is a Grade II* listed hotel in Broadway, Worcestershire, originally a coaching inn. The current building dates from the seventeenth century.[1]

The Lygon Arms
The exterior of the Lygon Arms Hotel from Broadway's High Street
Location within Worcestershire
Lygon Arms (England)
General information
Coordinates52.0362°N 1.8611°W / 52.0362; -1.8611
OwnerIan Livingstone and Richard Livingstone
Other information
Number of restaurants2
Number of bars2
Website
Official website

History

The Lygon Arms was built in the 14th century and was a key connection between Wales, Worcester and London during the Elizabethan period. The earliest written record of the inn dates to 1377 and refers to the building as "The White Hart".[2][3] However, the listing dates the current structure to the early seventeenth century.[1]

The coaching inn played a role in the English Civil War in 1649, serving both sides. Oliver Cromwell stayed there before the Battle of Worcester in 1651. Charles I also used it as a place to meet his supporters during the unrest.[4]

The inn continued to be used as a staging post into the eighteenth century for mail coaches travelling between London and Wales.[5] By the 1900s, the Lygon Arms was owned by Sydney Bolton Russell, whose son, Gordon Russell, restored antique furniture for the hotel in a loft above the coach house. Gordon Russell would become one of England’s leading designers in the 1930s.[6]

King Edward VII visited the hotel between 1905 and 1910, as did his grandson, the future Edward VIII.[7] In 1963 Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor stayed at the hotel during the height of the scandal surrounding their affair.[7] The hotel has also been visited by Prince Philip, Evelyn Waugh, and Kylie Minogue.[3]

Development

Sydney Bolton Russell (1866–1938) bought the Lygon Arms in 1903 from the Midlands brewer Samuel Allsopp & Sons, after first visiting the property in the early 1900s while he worked as a manager for the company. Russell renovated the property in 1910 in a Tudor and Stuart period style, with the help of the Arts and Crafts architect Charles Bateman (1863–1947). Russell recounted the experience of acquiring the Lygon Arms in his book The Story of an Old English Hostelry, published in 1914. In 1915, Russell moved out of the newly refurbished hotel to the village of Snowshill with the aim of separating his business and personal life.[8]

At the start of 2016 the new owners of the Lygon Arms, Ian Livingstone and Richard Livingstone, announced that the property would be going under extensive redevelopment.[9]

References
  1. "Lygon Arms Hotel". Historic England. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  2. "The Lygon Arms Hotel, Broadway". Broadway Cotswolds. 13 November 2017. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  3. "The cool hotel guide: The Lygon Arms, Broadway, Worcestershire". The Times. 22 September 2017. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  4. "Hotel Hit Squad: is this the most glamorous hotel in the Cotswolds?". The Daily Telegraph. 13 November 2017. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  5. "The Lygon Arms: a brief history". The Caterer. 1 September 2003. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  6. "Gordon Russell's Life and Work". Gordon Russell Design Museum. 13 September 2016. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  7. "Inside The Lygon Arms". The Cotswolds Gentleman. 19 October 2017. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
  8. "A Cotswold masterpiece". Country Life. 22 July 2014. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
  9. "New owners of Broadway's Lygon Arms plan two-year revamp". Cotswold Journal. 9 February 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
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