The Bell Inn was built early in the 19th Century and served the busy coach routes between Frome and Trowbridge and beyond to Chippenham and Bath. As with many inns of the period it served as a local community centre and even court house on some occasions.
Rode itself has a longer history with its first record in the Domesday Book of 1086 when it was known as Road and only in recent history has it been named Rode.
The village was well known for production and dying of cloth and at its peak Rode had four or five mills. Possibly the greatest single moment in the milling industry of Rode was during the 18th century when a consortium of Rode mills won a competition to make Queen Charlotte's dress. In winning the prize it is said that the village invented the dye Royal Blue.
Records of the village also show a number of witchcraft cases with trial by water inflicted on local women and the notoriety of Rode was further enhanced in June 1860 when the village was the scene of one of the most infamous murders of the 19th century when Constance Kent was arrested for the murder of her 4-year-old half-brother at Road Hill House (now Langham House).
The murder case took the Victorian world by storm, and inspired Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle, among others to pen murder mysteries. The book The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher or Murder at Road Hill House is a bestselling book and is set for TV adaptation.