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The
Barge Inn 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: the present owners,
re-acquiring the Barge Inn in 1992, are the well known Ushers of
Trowbridge.
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.
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