History
The
Barge is at the epicentre of a plethora of ancient sites and tracks.
Being a stones throw from the beginning of the
Ridgeway, one of the oldest highways in the country dating back
to the stone age, a few miles from the Avebury
stone circle, the bronze age cathedral to Stonehenge's
parish church and
Silbury, the unexplained, manmade hill on the side of the A4 and
just down the road from the West
Kennet Long Barrow. Nearby the Norman churches of St Mary the Virgin
in Alton Barnes and All Saints in Alton Priors are well worth a visit
as is the WW2 memorial which is found a few hundred yards down the towpath
from the pub.
The
Barge Inn itself has a long and colourful history, built in 1810 to
coincide with the opening of the Kennet and Avon
Canal, it prospered alongside a waterway then busy with both commercial
and passenger traffic.
Known
in its heyday as the George, the establishment contained a slaughter
house, coach house and stabling for four horses, as well as a brew house,
hop store, bake house, smoke house and cart shed. The north section
of the ground floor included a grocery and general stores, as between
1871 and 1957 a number of licensees also acted as local grocers.
Sadly,
fire broke out on the 14th December, 1858 largely destroying the original
building and preceding what the Devizes & Wiltshire Gazette referred
to as a “disgraceful scene. Soon after the fire was extinguished
…… the cellars were entered …. And there was nothing
but drunkenness and confusion.”
However,
due to its importance, the Barge Inn was rebuilt in just six months,
an event commemorated by a plaque at the north gable end. The Inn, which
now had no fewer than 24 rooms within the main building and 15 fireplaces
including those in the bake house and barns, flourished along with other
services at Honeystreet such as the sawmills, builders wharf and coal
stores.
The
canal became more neglected with the arrival of the railways, but this
did not prevent the Barge Inn from being sold by auction on Wednesday
April 7th, 1897 (“at three o’clock punctually”), to
T&J Usher of Bristol, for the then considerable sum of £2,100.
Today, a hundred years later, the wheel of history has turned full circle:
with Ushers reacquiring The Barge in 1992.
This
transaction was marginally preceded by the mysterious appearance of
crop circles in the vicinity, causing
many students of these phenomena to swell the ranks of customers who
include cyclists, walkers, canoeists, narrowboat enthusiasts and occasionally
musicians.
Amongst
these people are many who take advantage of the leafy camping and caravan
sites to the south west of the main buildings, and who enjoy the clear
sight, beyond the canal, of the White Horse of Alton Barnes, commenced
at about the same time as the original building and completed after
the first of the foremen had - so it is said - absconded with his advance
and later been hanged for sheep stealing.
In the year 2000, Ushers became the pub group InnSpired Inns who in turn were taken over by the national
'Pubco' - Punch Taverns. In March 2010, the pub was purchased by Hosneystreet Ales, an independent boutique pub company.
On August 23rd 2010, the long term tenants Adrian & June Potts 'called time' after
seventeen wonderful years and the tenancy was then taken on by a group of Big Lottery Funded 'locals' known
as The Barge Inn Community Project.
