History
The Bull Hotel is perhaps Denbigh's most renowned and historic inn; together with the Crown, in the eponymous square, it served the needs of the polite visitor during the C18 and C19. In the latter century the Crown gained a reputation for being a Whig (later Liberal) inn, whilst the Bull, as its rival, was usually frequented by those with Tory sympathies. It's origins as a coaching, and later posting inn, probably date back to the C17, although the core of the structure is early Tudor. Former names include the Guildhall Tavern and the Black Bull, although the present name is recorded already in a directory of 1835. During the famous siege of Denbigh castle during the Civil War (1646), the besieging parliamentary Generals Mytton and Myddleton are traditionally said to have established their Head Quarters here. Various letters sent between Mytton 'in Denbigh Towne' and the doughty royalist defender Colonel 'Blue-stockings' Salesbury have survived; in the mid C19 several of these were still in the possession of the landlady of the Bull. The present building consists of a late C16 or early C17 triple-gabled main block, the facade to which is timber-framed (mostly now tile-hung) above a stone ground floor.The core of this building is, however, likely to be earlier: an arched-braced collar truss with attendant windbracing is partly visible in an upper bedroom, suggesting an earlier Tudor core. A fine well staircase of the second-quarter C17 rises full height to the attic floor; this has similar newel-post decoration to the (now fragmentary) contemporary example at the Crown Hotel. The current tradition (already cited by Williams in 1856) that the carved hand which appears on each of the newel posts of the stair represents the badge of the Myddleton family, is based on a misconception. The arms of the Myddletons are the three wolves of Blaidd Rhudd and the presence of a hand (actually the 'Bloody Hand of Ulster') within the achievements merely denotes the baronetcy; it is therefore common to the arms of all families of similar status. Furthermore, the carved hand is actually not a hand but a glove. As Denbigh was one of the leading centres of the glove trade in the C16 and C17, the use of such a motif seems unsurprising.
An adjoining brick range with shaped gable to the front is a late C17 addition. Work is known to have been undertaken in 1666, and an ex-situ date of that year is recorded. In addition, a (now much weathered) stone date plaque appears on the facade, apparently bearing the inscribed date 1666 and the initials E LL (for Lloyd). Until the early years of this century, this wing had an entrance in the R bay with a tall hood canopy, evidently of early C18 date. Within is a fine late C17 oak dogleg stair (opposite the former entrance) and two panelled parlours to the L (now one L-shaped room) with fine, large-field Stuart oak panelling. The Lloyd family were the proprietors of the hotel in the late C19 and early C20; whether they were connected with the E Lloyd responsible for the late C17 work is, however, not known.
The inn was remodelled in the late C19 when the facade was given its present tile-hung appearance; other alterations, including the conversion of the hooded entrance to a window, were carried out early this century.