The Inn

The Kings Arms is a 15th-century coaching inn, set just off the old Fosse Way in Shepton Mallet. Coaching inns were the service stations of their day: a change of horses, a meal, a bed for the night, and shelter from a long road. This one has been doing three of those four for the better part of six centuries, and on a cold morning the fourth feels close at hand too.

The town grew up on cloth and, later, on milling. Directly across the way stood a flour mill, and at the end of a shift the millers and their labourers would cross the road for a pint, still powdered head to foot in flour. They brought the dust in with them. The landlord, the regulars, the whole town took to calling the place “the Dusthole”, said with a grin rather than a grumble, and the name has outlasted every sign that ever hung outside. The dust settled long ago. The name, happily, never did.

A quieter few years, and a return

Like a great many small inns, the place had a hard time of it through 2020 and the years that followed. Doors that had stayed open through plagues, wars and the coming of the railway found themselves shut. It took time, and no small amount of stubbornness, to put that right. The fires are lit again, the kitchen is busy, and the rooms are full of guests rather than dust sheets. The Dusthole is firmly back on its feet.

What the place is now

Seven guest bedrooms, every one with its own bathroom and its own character. A bar that is properly licensed and properly stocked. A kitchen and restaurant that take food seriously without taking themselves too seriously. A conservatory, a breakfast room, gardens and a patio for the warmer months. It is the sort of inn people mean when they say they want “somewhere with a bit of history”, and then are pleasantly surprised to find the showers are excellent.

Meet your host

Tony Cockayne

Proprietor, host and chef

Tony has been the heart of The Dusthole for years, and he wears most of the hats: he is as likely to be behind the stove as behind the bar, and he will very often be the one who checks you in and pours the first drink. Guests tend to remember two things above all, the cooking and the welcome, and they tend to come back for both.

He would far rather take your booking over the phone than have a machine do it. Give him a ring. Tell him what you are after. He will see you right.