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I have very clear
memories of The Plough as it was my home for some years. My Granny Slade and
Great Granny Pike held the Licence during the Second World War because the
men were away fighting. It was unusual for a woman to be the licensee, but
the situation was also unusual! My father was in the Army, and when he came
back, sometime in 1945, he took over the Licence and we (Dad, Mum and I)
moved down to The Plough and Granny Slade moved into our house, just up the
road, in Bristol Street. My sister, Caro, was born in June 1946 and we were
living in the pub then. In 1947, which was a dreadful winter, the floods
came up across the paddock by the River and reached right up to our Kitchen,
which was an ‘add-on’ to the original building, it seems to me it was a
‘pre-fab’ sort of construction. We kept geese for a while, they were
horrible pecking creatures, and chickens, as well as two ducks – but the fox
got all of these one night when Dad hadn’t shut them in properly.
The Beaufort Hunt
once came into our land after a fox, my Mum was furious as she thought the
dogs might go for our Ginger Tom, Rusty, and really tore them off a strip.
Subsequently, the Duke of Beaufort sent her a beautiful bouquet of flowers,
and his apologies!
The Plough, one of
a large number of public houses in Malmesbury, had been used by the men
working on the Common Land, further along the Foxley and Common Roads.
Attached to the Pub building was a Stable, and next to that a very large
Building, we called it ‘The Barn’ which was reputedly once used for
threshing corn by the Malmesbury Commoners. Returning from their work on the
Common Land, they would like to have a glass of beer at the end of their
working day. The Plough would have been the first building they came to,
which may have to the origins of the house as a Public House.
Originally, and
for many years, the Pub only had a Beer Licence, probably with the Stroud
Brewery, who were the owners of the Plough for as long as I can remember.
There were 2 rooms used for the customers – when you came in the entrance
(our Front Door!) the Tap-Room was on the left (with the dartboard and deep
cupboards, one of which my father used to store the potatoes he grew) and
then on the right was the room known as the Cellar, where 2 large Casks of
Beer were set up. This was a small room, but it was where the regular
customers liked to sit, in the large window seat and chat. I’m not sure when
Dad eventually served Spirits because he kept them on a tray behind a
curtain in the Cellar! Dad always kept the Beer well, and it was drawn
straight from the Barrel, The Plough was a popular watering-hole for the
mainly beer drinkers, he also sold Cider and Stout. There were a number of
regular customers, some with copious thirsts, and some that you could set
your watch by the time of their arrival! Further along the Foxley Road was
the farm owned by Harold Macmillan’s son – in – law, who frequented the pub,
with his wife Sarah – she was a lovely lady. And on one occasion Harold
Macmillan and Bob Boothby came in for a drink as well, they sat in the
window seat chatting to everyone.
On the immediate
right of the Front Door was the door which opened up to the stairs leading
to the bedrooms, one large one for Mum & Dad, and a very small one – mine;
there was another bedroom in the attic where my sisters slept. When we went
up to bed, we had to pass through the customers in the Pub! We had no
bathroom – so it was the tin tub in the Kitchen! And the outside toilet was
some way down the path past the Stable and the Barn buildings. Next to the
Cellar was a single storey sitting room, which had a coal fire, a settee and
armchairs, and a dining table with four chairs. My youngest sister, Pip, was
born in 1951, and I remember her pram being tucked in to a small spot in the
sitting room – and I was delegated to rock it when she was crying!
I left Malmesbury
in 1959 to live and work in Bath, where I met my husband, who was in the
RAF, and we married in 1961; our first son, Andrew, was born in 1962 in
Oxford. In 1964 Vic was posted to RAF Lyneham and we moved into a hiring in
Malmesbury! Our second son, Richard, was born in the Cottage Hospital, where
I and my two sisters had been born. When the Plough closed in the 1970s, it
came up for sale, but my parents couldn’t afford to buy it, so they moved to
work for a family in Kent. I was quite sorry they left as Malmesbury is a
very historic town, with the ancient Abbey and the tall Church Spire, and it
is said to be the oldest Borough in the England, with a charter given by
Alfred the Great around 880. We visit occasionally, and I still have a very
good friend living there. |
