A truly splendid 18th Century Hotel with Handsome Historic Features
The Ivy House Hotel is a handsome Grade II listed building originally built in 1707 for the Earl of Aylesbury as Marlborough Academy, a school for boys. The school was run by Mr Greasley.
The hotel’s front door was originally the Master’s entrance, the Scholar’s meanwhile used the side passage way down to the cobbled courtyard. The 18th Century Boys cheekily carved their names and initials into the passage walls “18th Century Graffiti” which is still very visible today!
One of the Scholars of the Academy, William Canning of the Manor House, Ogbourne St George, designed and cut the White Horse of Marlborough. The Small but well maintained Marlborough White Horse is located on the shallow slopes on Granham Hill, above the village of Preshute located to the South West of Marlborough.
The Cobbled Courtyard
The Hotel is built around a cobbled courtyard, and retains many of its original features.
What is now the hotel restaurant was once the home of the first cinema in Marlborough. Regretfully the only evidence of the cinema is the raised platform where the big screen once stood. Soon after, the cinema moved up to what is now Waitrose!
Marlborough is a lively town where there is much of interest. It was once an important staging post on the great road between London, Bath & Bristol.
Just around the corner from the hotel is the beautiful Marlborough College which took in its first 199 boy students in 1843. The college itself has a fine history, more details of which can be seen on the college website.
Things have changed somewhat as it now caters for some 870 students and is one of the finest public schools in the Country.
More information can be found at www.marlboroughcollege.org
Exclusively, Residents of the Ivy House Hotel can arrange a private tour of the college which is strictly by appointment only.
Marlborough High Street is the widest High Street in the UK. The Great Fire of Marlborough in 1653 saw to that when it burnt down two hundred and fifty houses to the ground. Fire swept through the Town again in 1679 and again in 1690. This time, an Act Of Parliament was passed “to prohibit the covering of houses and other buildings with thatch in the Town of Marlborough”.
At the West of the High Street near the Ivy House Hotel is the 15th Century St Peter’s Church which is now a permanent Art & Craft Centre.
At the East End of the High Street is the Town Hall. The High Street is home to some of the finest shops which are well worth a visit.
More Local Attractions:
Avebury Stone Circles, Silbury Hill, St Peters Church – Marlborough, Salisbury Plain, Bath, Swindon, Hungerford, West Woods – Bluebell Woods, Savernake Forest, West Kennet, Long Barrow Caves, Crop Circles, Stonehenge and much more.