Pack Horse Inn Bridport

[RogerA]

My pleasure - as you say I am pretty certain your gg grandfather would immediately recognise the scene.
Thanks for the photo of the current site; when I'm down in that part of the country I intend to look it up.

Kind regards,

Roger

[Rorydiver]

Hi,

I stumbled across this site and topic by pure chance. From, I think 1953 (I was six years old when we moved there from Melplash a few miles away on the road to Beaminster) to when it closed, I lived at the Pack Horse Hotel (not Inn), 35 East St., Bridport. My father, Douglas John Roriston was the tenant landlord  and he and y mother, known as Pat, were there until it closed following their resignation.  I think that it was around 1967 when they auctioned all the furniture and fitting off and vacated. The picture showing that it is now a Blockbuster outlet is correct or was the last time I saw it.  The Pack Horse facade was Georgian but the picture showing the cobbled passage (and our washing) with the wattle and daub plaster work and overhang to the right, dated back to around 1530. I don't think that Palmer's, the brewery who owned the site, would have been able to demolish the building unopposed so easily today. My sister has more photo's than I do but I do have some. There is some history between the Bull Hotel (still standing) and the Pack Horse during the Civil War and rumours of a passage way leading under the road to the Bull.  My brother and I spent some several hours digging away in the earth of a secret room, probably a priest hole, which we discovered leading off from a storeroom.  We unearthed many old clay pipe stems and found what certainly appeared to be a filled in tunnel.

Best regards,  Ian

[janan]

How fascinating Ian, thank you so much for posting. If you are able to share any of your photos that would be lovely

Jan

Oh and welcome to Rootschat