Remembering the Boot Inn in North Allington, Bridport

The Boot Inn at 124 North Allington was the scene of a shooting accident in 1877, as reported in the Bridport News.

George Clapp had been out shooting and, calling at the Boot for a drink, left his shotgun by a door.

William Pomeroy, seeing some wire entangled around the trigger, tried to remove it but this resulted in the gun going off killing James Hodder. His ghost was said to haunt the bar.

The Boot, which had one of the oldest skittles alleys in Bridport, was a Palmers Brewery pub and was a popular watering hole for more than 200 years.

Paul Murphy, whose father Peter and mother Sheila were landlord and landlady at the pub, said: "It was a locals' pub in its early days but the welcome to visitors on holiday through its B&B service ensured a good mix of people passing through its doors

"It was a sad day hearing it had closed.

"There are lots of memories of great times especially around carnival time as we entered a float every year through our time there ,the locals getting involved in its construction in the pub car park each summer."

A sign above the former Boot Inn

Marion Taylor, writing for Bridport Museum's blog on ghosts, mentions the ghost of James Hodder at the Boot, among other spooky presences at the hostelry.

"It was a hostelry with no airs and graces, just a cosy brown and cream bar reminiscent of many traditional town pubs, with literally dozens of china boots adorning every horizontal surface. The origin of the pub’s name is often linked to boot and shoe-makers, but most probably has an explanation closer to home: a boot was a type of leather jug used for filling the tankards from the tuns (casks) of beer. The earliest recorded landlady of the Boot Inn was Mary Braddick in 1758; other owners included Thomas Legg and Job Legg before it was finally taken over by Palmers.

"Ghosts certainly seem to favour this unpretentious pub, and a past landlady told us of four in all. At the far left hand side of the bar, two figures have often been seen sitting at a table, one in khaki war-time uniform and the other less tangible – just a vague apparition.

"At the opposite end of the room is a corner which is known by a colourful term meaning ‘people who talk a lot corner’. It is here that an unfortunate accident took place in the late 1870s which was reported in the local paper, the Bridport News.

"‘On Sunday, a number of men were drinking at the Boot Inn when a man named Clapp, who had been scaring birds, entered with a loaded gun which by some means went off. One of the company, a 45 year old man, received the full charge in his head; he expired later that day’.

"At the time of the accident, the victim was wearing contemporary clothes and heavy hob-nailed boots, and it is his ghost, which is thought to haunt this part of the bar.

"The fourth ghost, said to haunt a room upstairs in the Boot Inn, is of a ‘Grey Lady’, who only appears to customers who have had the misfortune to have been taken ill downstairs in the bar! There are no records about the identity of The Grey Lady, but she is believed to be linked to a macabre happening at the King’s Arms down the road.

" A Cavalier who was staying at the Boot Inn walked to the neighbouring pub and fatally shot the landlady. It is supposed that the ‘Grey Lady’ who haunts the Boot Inn is the murdered Kings Arms landlady, who appears in order to seek revenge on the Cavalier killer by haunting him."

The brewery called last orders on the pub in June 2007. It closed in August of that year and was changed into a residential property. .

The last licensees were Maggie and Graham Carey, who had been at the pub for nine years, and retired from the trade.

Palmers said the cost of complying with legislation made it unfeasible to retain The Boot Inn as a pub.