Fovant Hut
Fovant Hut has also been known as the White Hart Inn or the Hut on Salisbury Plain. It was one of a series of posting houses along the turnpike road, which ran along the ridge of the downs above the village. Although we do not know when the inn was established, the Salisbury and Winchester Journal referred to it as ‘new built’ in 1757. William Kennell, the first landlord, advertised that he had:
‘a stock of neat Wines, rich Cordials, and all sorts of Spirituous Liquors to be sold Wholesale and Retail.’
The inn did a thriving trade until 1787 when the Lower Road (now the A30) was turnpiked. It is not known when the inn ceased to trade, but it has long since been a private house.
The Cross Keys
The earliest part of the Cross Keys, situated on the A30, is said to have been built in the late 15th century. Manor Courts were held here between 1724 and 1820, probably in the large room upstairs, which was originally accessed by external stone stairs.
According to the late Olive Mullins, whose grandparents and parents ran the Cross Keys from 1917 to 1942, the stone stairs were removed some time after 1942, possibly because they were an obstruction to traffic on the A30.
The Fovant Club, a sick benefit club mainly for agricultural workers, which was founded in the mid-1700s and ran until 1911, held its meetings in the upstairs room. Meat and vegetables for the Pig Club Suppers were cooked in large coppers situated in the back kitchen. Water had to be fetched from a pump near the Pound, the stone lockup for stray animals, which used to be near the Brook Street end of the inn.
The Cross Keys closed as an inn on 30 March 2003.
Cross Keys House was visited in the autumn of 2001 by Wiltshire Buildings Record who produced a detailed architectural survey, which sheds considerable light on its early history. The following is a brief summary of their report:
The Cross Keys Inn, is now a private house, but for hundreds of years it was an inn.
A brochure for it from the 1960s stated:
As the Inn is 80 miles from Exeter and 85 miles from London it makes an ideal stopping place for the Traveller, who is assured of Good Food with Service and Comfort.
For those interested in Wines, we have carefully chosen some 30 – 40 which, we feel sure, will suit all tastes.
There is a drawing of it, with its prominent inn sign hanging out over the road, in W H Hudson’s A Shepherd’s Life’
(1910), and many postcards were made of it early in the twentieth century.
The building is Grade 2 listed, and the listing states that the Cross Keys House dates from the late seventeenth century except for the distinctive octagonal porch which is nineteenth century.
Evidence from the wall thickness and the window mullions at ground and first floor suggests that the house started in the early 17th century as a building of one and a half storeys, and that the roof was raised to make a building of two storeys in the late 17th century. At this time it was likely to have been a farmhouse, whether or not it was an inn or alehouse at the same time. (The main road from London to Exeter was still at the top of the downs, and was to be so for another hundred years, so the inn would probably have served local people.)
At ground and first floor level the house has now been divided up somewhat, but in its early days it probably used to consist of a
parlour on the right and a kitchen (with a very large fireplace and a bread oven – pictured left – with its blacksmith-made door) on the left. The space in the middle, unheated, was probably a buttery or dairy as well as a staircase – this was a typical plan for Dorset and South Wiltshire houses.
Presumably the first floor level also originally consisted of two large rooms, one at each end, with a space in the middle for the staircase and storage.
Throughout the house are many of the original beams, some of which look as if they have been reused from an earlier building.
There are also some excellent metal fittings such as seventeenth century window and door latches and some of these were drawn and
included in the architectural report.
What was the octagonal 19th century porch for? One suggestion is that it was where people waited for the coach. (There is a similar porch attached to the old inn in Teffont.) More recently, people remember it as being a bar – there are excellent memories by Olive Mullins of the time when first her grandparents and then her parents lived in the house from 1890 to 1940.
She recalled the beer being stored at the rear of the house in a largely underground store (now the kitchen) and being pumped through lead piping a good twelve yards to the bar. We never heard of anyone dying of lead poisoning!’ she commented.
David Davis June 2002
The Pembroke Arms
The Pembroke Arms, opposite the Cross Keys, has been referred to as the Lord’s Inn, the Cart Wheel or the Catherine Wheel. The inn was built in the early 1790s, possibly on the site of a previous hostelry. It is of brick and tile construction.
The inn was part of lot 81 of the 1919 Pembroke sale and its outbuildings were described as stabling, coach house, cow house and piggery. At that time, the inn had a detached garden on the opposite side of the High Street. The stables were demolished after the Second World War, clearing a space for the current car park.
James Millard, the first landlord, informed the public through the local press that he:
‘has laid in an assortment of good Old wines and other liquors. Good beds. Well aired … neat Post-Chaise with able Horses and careful Drivers.’
The Poplar Inn
There is some suggestion that the Poplar Inn was at one time called ‘The Drum and Monkey’, but in 1962 the then owners, Eldridge Pope and Co. disclaimed all knowledge of this name. The date of the building is uncertain, but likely to be between 1789 and 1811. There is no doubt that it was built on an area of ground willed by a Quaker lady to be used as a burial ground for the Brethren, but no documentary or archaeological evidence has proved that it was ever used as such.
During World War II Stephen Jeffery and his mother were evacuated to Fovant where they stayed with his paternal grandparents who were licensees of the Poplar Inn. He remembers that:
‘The Poplars lay well back from the road and had a large front garden where my grandparents grew vegetables. I vividly remember a very large Christmas tree in the front garden, and a stream between the garden and the road in front. I remember harvest time in the fields to the left of the Inn, viewed from the front, using the old fashioned hay making machine and the stooks being piled. There was also a searchlight battery in the field on the right of the Inn.
One interesting point about the Poplar Inn at that time was that it was just a beer house and not licensed to sell spirits. The pub had one bar and a small snug on the side. My recollection of it is of an extremely busy place, full of laughter and plenty of characters.
As you can imagine the many servicemen in the vicinity spent some of their time in the pubs of the area. The Poplar Inn was no exception and in particular it was extremely popular with American soldiers who came regularly from Salisbury, so they must have like the atmosphere. My mother remembers some of them as being particularly helpful to her at the time as she was pregnant with my sister Linda. I remember them regularly keeping me amused by giving me rides in their jeeps up and down Dean Lane and keeping me supplied with ‘candy’. The pub was similarly a popular venue for RAF personnel from Chilmark’.
The Poplar Inn closed in 1998 and the site, in Sutton Road, was used for housing, as can be seen from the second photograph. The area is now known as Home Close.
Click on the links below to see a list of the landlords of all these pubs:
S.M.
October 2003