I don't remember exactly when I first visited The Boot Inn in Lapworth, but it was probably in the early 1980's. At that time the narrowboat I holidayed on was moored on the Stratford Canal just behind the Boot. In those days it was a very cosy country pub and was a popular watering hole that many people drove there for a trip out.
My first picture of the pub dates from lunchtime on Saturday 3rd August 1991 (below). The narrowboat had been moored near Wigan on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal and we were moving it down South to Cowley Peachey on the Grand Union Canal. On the day this photo was taken we were due to swap over crew for the second half of the journey. This was complicated, on the day, by the fact that Lock 11 was broken and so we left the boat above Lock 10 and went to the pub for lunch! We did still hand over to the new crew who managed to get under way at 5:30 pm!
We didn't move the boat back up to the Midlands until 1996. By this time I had become a joint owner of Emma Jane and we were back at Briar Cottage Moorings behind The Boot Inn! This was on the evening of Saturday 6th September 1996.
I'm not sure when The Boot was converted into a 'Country Pub & Restaurant", but it was round about this time. The main body of the pub was largely unchanged, but the building on the right was converted into the restaurant. The picture below is from 2000.
Moving on to 2008 and the scene is largely the same except that it is no longer a Whibread pub and the quality of cars parked outside is now much higher.
Although it isn't a 'proper' pub any more you can still visit and just have a pint (or three!) in the bar area and it has a very pleasant garden for use on warm evenings. The food is very good and the place is always busy, so despite the loss of its original character it is still a thriving concern which includes former Aston Villa footballer and former Sky pundit Andy Gray amongst it's regular clientèle.
This photo was taken on the evening of Friday 3rd June 2011. The cars have become even more expensive!! The Boot Inn is part (and was the first one) of a collection of Country Pubs & Restaurants which operate on similar lines. To learn more about The Boot Inn and the others in this group follow this link.
Perhaps I should do a post about what the cars on the pub car park tell you about the clientele inside ;-)
ReplyDeleteThat could be a very interesting post!!! I now park my car round the back so as not to 'devalue' the appearance of the pub!!
ReplyDeleteAlways been a 'car types' pub. M.A.C had one of their annual dos there in 50s. Was the meetup place for a lot of rally/hot car guys in 1960s inc eg WillSparrow etc, plus bit of field racing happened out at the back, plus a drag/record bike was kept/built in the garages late '60s. Plus also the usual preparty/chatup/general pubcrawl meetup joint for the betterheeled.
ReplyDelete'Bill'