TALES FROM THE HILLS

(Ashmansworth and Crux Easton)

There used to be three pubs up here: one was the highest pub in Hampshire, another was the second highest, and the last was burnt to the ground in 1811.

A travel writer was pedalling along the Andover Road before the First World War and, on reaching the top of the hill (no doubt impressed by the climb and refreshed by a beer), he declared Fred Greenaway’s pub, the Three Legged Cross, to be “certainly the highest in Hampshire.”

That was an odd mistake: after all, travelling on a bike, he must have been using the OS map for tourists, published in 1900, which clearly marks the two pubs and their spot heights – the Cross at 714 feet above sea level and the Plough at 763.

Not all Fred’s guests were grateful cyclists. In 1930 he was awakened in the small hours by shouts and banging at the door. When he opened it, he found two arrogant, well-spoken young toffs who demanded to be let in. He refused, so they assaulted him and left him badly hurt. The attack was later brought up at the Old Bailey, where these same ruffians had been tried for (and subsequently convicted of) assault and robbery of a London jeweller.

The Plough at Ashmansworth was for centuries the highest pub in Hampshire, until they closed it in 2008. It was the perfect setting for a pub: right at the centre of the village and close to everybody; but the vicar left, the schoolteacher left, the Methodist preacher left and the postmistress left. Now the publican’s gone, and so have the adjacent bus stop and smithy. Yes, it’s a conservation area, but you might ask whether we are conserving enough.

One night in 1811, the Boot Inn, which stood on the site of Hughbourne House, was burnt to the ground. In the flames were destroyed all the parish records up to that date. It appears that the parish clerk either lived at the Boot, or left the records there for safe-keeping – in a thatched pub with a log fire, flammable spirits and people smoking. As they say: what could possibly go wrong?

Agricola, March 2023