A pub shaped like a boot
A moorland adventure
I thought I’d post a little extract from my book The Lost Folk. Today we are off to the Highwayman Inn….
On the edge of Dartmoor lies the small village of Sourton. It is an unassuming place, except for the presence of the Highwayman Inn: a coaching inn with a difference. The back of the inn is shaped like a huge black boot, which has a doorway into the pub. The front door of the pub is made from an old coach and in the car park is a Wendy house, with lattice windows and doors made from enormous barrels. Across the road is a house that looks like it was taken straight from a fairy tale, with an undulating, deliberately wonky roof and ornate white ironwork gates.
I felt sure on walking past it that it must be related in some way to the fantastical inn opposite. And indeed, it turns out both were the work of entrepreneur and athlete John Edward Jones, known as ‘Buster’, who moved to the village in 1959 with his wife Rita. They were both fascinated by the ghost tales of headless horsemen and roundheads and cavaliers that teemed from the surrounding moorlands. On receiving the keys to the inn they began to convert it into a suitably themed space, weaving local stories and hauntings into the fabric ofthe building. Over the years came the addition of the Wendy house for children to play in while their parents sipped pints, and in 1978, the couple purchased the old village hall across the road, which they gradually converted into the fantastical Cobweb Hall – the house that I had spotted and wondered about. Nikolaus Pevsner even mentions it in his entry on Sourton in his guide to Devon, describing it as ‘a Disneyland cottage ornée’. With local stone, moorland bog oak and pieces of shipwrecks, Buster and Rita crafted a world in which illusion and fantasy reigned. Guests were invited to step into this wonderous place and revel in tales of hauntings and spectral beings, while enjoying fare not dissimilar to that of a meadery. Thankfully both the pub and Cobweb Hall are still open to visitors today and are now run by Buster and Rita’s daughter Sally and her husband Bruce, who have retained Buster and Rita’s sense of magic and wonder; on a misty day, if you squint, I’m fairly sure you may still encounter an entity from the other side.
Here’s Cobweb Hall opposite the pub which is available to rent (!) you can book your stay here. Don’t blame me if the spooks wake you up!
and of course if you should fancy a pint and some food at the Highwayman Inn you can find their opening times here
and if you enjoyed that you might enjoy my book, which you can find at all good bookshops online and irl.
My faves are
Lark Books (only irl currently!)
Lally x