Comments

Francis Knight, Sea-Board of Mendip, pages 53 & 56, contain some hints that the earliest the hotel could have been built is after 1808. 1808 is when Parsley and Cox first buy land from the Piggot's (who owned half of North Somerset at the time!). So, Needham probably is the first tenant:

Sea-Board of Mendip - Weston-super-Mare

I think this might be the same James Needham - it's a very interesting article with patent diagrams:

The 1811 Needham And Rawlins Patent Brewing Machine

As Honey Langcaster-James mentioned in her post - A John Sawtell ran/owned the hotel from at least 1811 (see p2 - Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette - Thursday 25 July 1811) and he died in October 1817. Then from Honey's post onwards, becoming Fry's Hotel, then Reeve's Hotel, etc.

Richard

P.S. If you look carefully at the photograph I posted above of The Bath Hotel, I believe you can see a pile of stone on the right opposite Myrtle Cottage. I believe this might have been the pile of old stone from the original parish church that I was talking about!

Hmmm This is very interesting! I have wanted to establish for quite some time the exact ownership records for The Royal Hotel (as far as I know originally The Hotel under management of SAWTELL and then becoming Fry's Hotel, then Reeve's Hotel, then later Royal Hotel). There are several books about Weston which state that the original investors who had the place built were PARSLEY, COX, CAPELL and FRY (who I'm assuming was Richard FRY my ancestor, who later took over the running of it). However, in some notes shown to me by other members of the society, completed by Brian Austin I think, there was some doubt as to whether Richard FRY had ever been an owner of a part share in it. I have been unable to find any primary sources of evidence to prove this. Though it seems odd that this is stated as fact by several books about the history of Weston if none exists. I certainly know that he ran it for a while as he kept an original copy of the newspaper in which he announces he took it over from 1818 and he then handed that down to family members. I just don't know whether he was one of the original investors. I suspect he was because I believe he was living in Clifton and running a Lodging House at the time the Hotel was built and as such, he'd have been the only one of the original four men who had any hospitality industry experience, the others being locals. As I live far from Weston I've been limited to research I've been able to do online or through books that I've ordered to be delivered. I do know that somehow, Richard FRY ended up owning both Myrtle Cottage and Bath Hotel, though Bath Hotel was managed by George Wookey and then his wife after he died. And I know that Richard FRY ran Myrtle Cottage as a Lodging House. The local curate FORSYTH stayed with the family at Myrtle Cottage for some time, and I am keen to find out whether any of his original letters have survived, as I know there was a "memoir" biography written about FORSYTH in which extracts of his many letters are quoted, but it's all religiously relevant comments rather than about his lodgings which has been included. There is much still to uncover about how Weston the tourist resort began I think and it all leads back to The Hotel and the properties in South Parade somehow!!

There is also an intriguing report on Page 1 of the Taunton Courier, and Western Advertiser, Wednesday 10 August 1836, Column 1. Something about John Reeve being restored by law as the rightful owner of Reeve's Hotel. So perhaps George Wookey was kicked-out rather than just him "removing" himself?!! I was wondering if the Gazette or some other law books might report on the case/reasons?

Richard

Ah okay! My mistake - that makes complete sense given the author of the article talked about the church features rather than a church itself.

Searching ... to be honest, it was a simple keyword search but I do use "+" (plus) signs in my search so that every word has to appear on the same page to get a hit. So if you perform this search:

+"bath hotel" +"weston" +"south parade" (and also filter by Bristol as a city or region, as in my experience, you get better coverage of Somerset/Weston news for that period)

The only article that appears in that period (1800-1849), using that search, is that one I shared with you.

Best regards,

Richard