Haunted Britain says the Old Bell was built around 1220 and has been used for hospitality ever since, originally lodging important guests who visited Malmesbury Abbey next door. It was expanded in 1908 by its then owner Joseph Moore, who by tradition financed the work with a cache of gold found in the abbey grounds. The ghost is a grey lady sometimes seen drifting around the upper floors in the early hours. Nobody knows who she was, and she is said to take fright when she meets a living person and vanish.
The Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, drawing on Ralph Whitlock's Folklore of Wiltshire, also mentions the Old Bell's grey lady, seen inside and outside the property. The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald adds that the east wing is believed to stand on part of the abbey cemetery, that sarcophagi are rumoured to lie under the bar, and that she is most often seen in the James Ody room, where chanting 'Grey Lady' three times is said to bring her. The Swindon Advertiser repeats the three times custom.
None of these sources gives a date or a first hand witness. The summoning custom reads like a later pub legend added to an older vague tradition. The abbey monk ghost is a separate record already on this map. The inn is a working hotel.
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