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If you manage to negotiate the busy main road between the car park and the front door, your bravery will be well rewarded. The Shoe Inn is a very friendly pub, steeped with history and should not be missed on a visit to the Forest. A beautifully-crafted thatched roof protects the original inn. Built in 1420 the Shoe Inn took its name from the cavalry troops who frequented it when travelling from the garrison in Salisbury to the port of Marchwood. Seen from the main road, it’s an attractive black-and-cream half-timber structure, built around 1640 when the inn became a posting station for mail coaches. A toll-gate was constructed across the road and the landlord made responsible for collecting the King’s tolls. The last New Forest highwayman, John Taylor, was caught while drinking at the pub and publicly hanged on the nearby Plaitford Common. Queen Victoria who stopped here on route to the Isle of Wight. Alongside the building runs what used to be the main road between Salisbury and Southampton. The interior of The Shoe Inn is quite as inviting as the outside, as olde-worlde as you could wish with its real fires and many bygones on display. |
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A36 Salisbury Road Plaitford, Nr Romsey, Hampshire SO51 6EE Phone: 01794-322397 Fax: 01794 322405 Email: theshoeinn@btinternet.com |
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FREE HOUSE |
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Public House - Restaurant - En-Suite Accommodation |
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The roadside pub that’s off the beaten track |