When leaving the M5 at Junction 22 turn right onto the A38 towards Bristol, very soon you will spot, set well back from the road and tucked into the foot of the historic Iron Age Fort known as Brent Knoll, this delightful country hotel. You will have travelled for only a mile from the motorway, yet if you appreciate unspoilt rurality you will love the Battleborough Grange and its peaceful environment. It was once a small country house, was then adapted into a guesthouse and has now been developed into a fine country hotel.

Des & Carol Chalmers have added some splendid touches, including a rare split level honeymoon suite, new extension with 6 Executive bedrooms, lovely landscaped gardens which has a Gazebo that is licensed for wedding ceremonies.

The views from here, beyond the walled terrace and attractive grounds, encompass the Mendip Hills, whilst close by are miles of sandy beaches, the Quantocks and Exmoor. Guests tell us of their excursions to Wells, Glastonbury, Cheddar, Bath and Bristol, but all say that the atmosphere and country air at the Battleborough Grange is so … relaxing. We also cater for business travellers, both male and female, who over time have become good friends not only to the owners and the staff but also to each other.

All major credit cards excepted.

Country Style Rooms tariff includes:
7 double bedrooms (one of which can be used as a double or an interconnecting family room), 4 twin bedrooms, 1 single bedroom (although all rooms can be used as single occupancy), 2 four-poster bedrooms.

Executive tariff includes:
1 double bedroom, 2 twin bedrooms, 2 four-poster bedrooms with jacuzzi baths, 1 american style bedroom with two double beds (which can be used as a single, double, twin or family room), 1 split-level honeymoon suite.
Please see our tariff page for prices and our contact page for availability.

All rooms with TV, Telephone with Modem, Radio, Tea and Coffee-making facilities, and hairdriers. Executive rooms also have freeview tv & clock radios.  Iron & ironing board available on request.

Open all year except for closure after Christmas day lunch, re-open at the beginning of January.

• Residential and Restaurant Licence.
• Full central heating.
• Conference facilities
• Children welcome.
• Dogs (except guide dogs) not allowed.
• Free Parking facilities.
• Wedding Ceremony Licence.
• Nearby:
  Golf, Tennis, Putting, Squash, Skiing, Badminton, Swimming, Solarium, Sauna,  Fishing, Horse Riding, Sailing, Windsurfing, Water Skiing, Karting, Jet Skis.

The History of the Battleborough Grange

As Far as we know the original Battleborough building was built in the late 1800’s. We have an ordnance survey map dated 1903, the survey was carried out in 1883 and published in 1886 it was revised in 1902 and came out in 1903 and this shows us on the map as upper Battleborough Farm. There is also a Battleborough House and a Battleborough Cottage on the map but we do not have any information regarding these buildings. We have researched the owners for upper Battleborough farm they are as follows -

• 1883 Fredrick Gamlin – Farmer (we suspect)
• 1897 H Kinsey – Farmer
• 1901 Francais Grapham – Farmer
• 1930 Mrs H Williams - Farmer and also used to run the farmhouse as a guest house and she was also infamous for her cream teas.

We found a quote in Kelly’s directory it reads as follows:
Battleborough Grange Farm Guest House (Mrs H Williams) Teas, bed & breakfast. Good accommodation, lock up garage. T N 88 (telephone extension Number). During the Second World War when there was strict rationing on food she used to provide cream teas with two boiled eggs for sixpence. She was able to do this because she kept her own chickens and made her own cream; we still have many people come here who remember Mrs Williams fondly and those special teas. Mrs Williams then sold to Mr Bond who in his time leased it out to 6 different people he also sold off land so the motorway could be built in 1974.

History of Brent Knoll

The Knoll dates back to the Jurassic period of 300 million years ago when dinosaurs & primitive mammals roamed the area, a warm shallow sea washed around the slopes giving it the name ‘Frog Island’.  The Romans knew the Knoll as the ‘Mount of Frogs’. The Knoll attracted primitive man as a secure place, bronze age & iron age people set encampments on the summit, which was the focus of religious activity and the Romans built a temple there. Roman coins of the emperor Trajan (AD 98-117) and Septimus Severus (AD 145-211) were found in an urn on the Knoll in 1610. On the eastern slopes is the site of a battle in AD875 when the Saxons drove away the Danes, hence giving us our name ‘Battleborough Grange’ there is also a Battleborough Lane leading to a public footpath up the knoll.

The Doomsday Book commissioned by William I in AD1086 show the make up of the land near the knoll, it had approximately 250 people living around the base and eking out a poor existence. The land was marshy and often in flood, it dried out for summer pasturage. The next 200 years saw better drainage an absence of invaders, rule of law and increased trade. In AD 1327 the lay subsidy returns set out actual names of about 180 people who could pay tax. During the English Civil war 1641 – 1645 royalist soldiers caused mayhem in the village under the leadership of John Somerset, local people rose against the plunderers, his effigy and those of his family may be seen in the local church.

In AD 1607 the vale of avalon flooded 12 feet deep as far as Glastonbury and in AD 1703 the sea broke across the land but luckily in the 18th and 19th centuries drainage efforts increased which made living in the village a more viable option.
In 1801 there was approx. 500 locally and this doubled by 1841 due to the temporary presence of itinerant railway workers building the Bristol to Exeter Railway.

Between 1875 and 1883 the village name was changed from South Brent to Brent Knoll to avoid confusion with a village called South Brent in Devon which ran along the same railway line.
Brent Knoll is 137  metres high, it is an outcrop of the nearby Mendip Hills. The word Brent can mean beacon, slope, lofty, steep, smooth & unwrinkled round hillock.

Thanks to Eve Thorne & to the Brent Knoll Village web site.
If anybody has any further information please let us know.