The lost pubs of Boston

This week I’ve gone for a slightly different approach. I’ve chosen a handful of pubs that operated (in one way or another) during the early modern period in Boston.

As many will know, some of Boston’s oldest Inns used to be located within the Market Place. The Ostrich Inn was a 16th Century building that stood on the current site of the statue of Herbert Ingram, next to St Botolph’s Church. According to P. Thompson’s History of Boston, the pub shared a space next to the prison, and four other shops rented from Alvingham Priory. In 1774, Mr John Parrish gave the inn to the church for additional burial space, and the pub was demolished.

Across from where the Ostrich Inn once stood was The Three Tuns on the corner of Church Lane. Oliver Cromwell visited the town during the Civil War and stayed a night here. A 19th Century engraving of the Three Tuns depicts a large timber built house decorated with a running herringbone pattern to the first floor. The last license for the Three Tuns was in 1810, with this section of the Market Place demolished and rebuilt in 1820 by the Boston Corporation.

The Saracens Head was a 16th Century Inn located at 25 High Street. In 1590 it was one of five licenced houses to be ‘a Tipler or seller of ale brewed out of the borough’ (meaning it didn’t have to sell beer brewed exclusively on the premises). The inn fronted the High Street but was also accessible from nearby West Street. In 1674 the pub was recorded as ‘Sergents Head’ but no further references (or what became of the inn) are found after this date. A small section of the building’s old timber frame can be seen above the modern shopfront (curved end braces to the first floor and part of the jetting) from the High Street.

A few doors down, located at 35 High Street, is another 16th Century building that was once a pub. The site, grade II listed, was part of a Medieval Hall but no mention of The Rodney & Hood in the official listing. While it is not possible to accurately date when the inn came into existence, The Rodney & Hood was certainly well established by the 18th Century. In an earlier post, we learnt how the Lord Nelson Inn opened in 1805 after victory at Trafalgar. Like Nelson, George Rodney and Samuel Hood were famous Royal Navy admirals securing important naval victories for the British. A 1794 post from the Stamford Mercury confirmed the inn was in operation during this period, but it may have traded under a different name before this date. During the 19^th Century, the pub was kept by members of the Tooley Family and closed in 1914.

Further down the High Street, at number 82, was the Mariners Home. Gillian Harden’s book ‘Medieval Boston’ dated this building to the 1600s, although the pub was not established until the 19th Century. In 1840, the inn was known as The Boat and later renamed the Mariners Home by a retired sailor that took over the inn. The pub closed at the beginning of the 20th Century and now serves as a barbershop.