21 Jan The Former Squirrel Hotel
Today is Squirrel Appreciation Day but instead of celebrating the fuzzy little creatures that call our green spaces home, we would like to highlight the fascinating history of our building at 28-30 Fore Street, formerly known as The Squirrel Hotel.
We asked Wellington Museum if they had any old plans of the building and did they ever deliver! Here we can see the a plan of building from the 1920s including some proposed alterations at the time, showing just how huge this place once was!
Our building is Grade II listed (first listed in 1951) and was originally built in the 17th century. The “Squirrel” moniker comes from the crest of the Bluetts of Holcombe Rogus who were local landowners. The Squirrel Hotel was, for much of its history, an important coaching inn for the town as it sat on the route between Exeter and London. It is even speculated that this inn could have been visited by the Duke of Wellington on his only visit to the town in 1819, such was its status.
The hotel was a lively hub of Wellington until 1971 when its owners were refused permission to demolish the building. The building was subsequently boarded up and fell into disrepair. It purchased by Taunton Deane Borough Council in 1976 to be converted into flats/houses. Shortly after they received planning permission for this in 1978 they decided they would instead put part of the property into use as a base for their operations in Wellington and would provide a meeting chamber for the Town Council and office space for the Town Clerk. This scheme also included space for Wellington Museum, which was to be set up from funds raised at the Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977.
The programme of work on the building took years to complete and the Town Council was finally able to move into the premises in 1982, holding its first meeting in the new Council Chamber on 1st February. Council meetings were held here until 2005 when the Disability Discrimination Act was introduced, making it the Council’s responsibility to hold meetings in a location that was accessible for everyone, meaning that the first floor Council Chamber was no longer an option. Though the Borough Council who owned the building explored options of an elevator or stair lift at 28 Fore Street, it was agreed that the costs were prohibitive and the idea was scrapped, the Town Council opting to hold meetings at the nearby United Reformed Church ever since.
28-30 Fore Street was purchased by Wellington Town Council in 2024 when Somerset Council deemed it surplus to their requirements. The building has remained pretty much the same since the 1980’s, with the only major change being the Community Office moving into 30 Fore Street in 1998, replacing a dwelling. In fact, it is only this month that we removed some of the 80’s vinyl on the first floor and replaced it with carpet! The next big project for the former Squirrel Hotel will be us refitting the ground floor office at 30 Fore Street to transform it into an accessible reception and information hub for residents and visitors alike.
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