The Old Boot

by Louisa Adjoa Parker (Weymouth)

Robbie talks fondly about the pub’s history in between serving pints of ‘the usual’ to customers. It’s the oldest pub in Weymouth. A row of boots hangs at the window, silhouetted against the sun. It was an old coaching inn, he says, 17th century.

He points outside, coral beads slipping down his arm. The slip road went down through here; there was no swannery, no harbour, no nothing. Up top there we got an old ship lamp; it’d be lit when the smugglers came, to say no customs officers here.

They used to come through the tunnel. It’s still there, goes right through to the town hall. All bricked up now though. They’d bring their contraband – brandy and baccy – to sell. The cellars are creepy, where the smugglers went through.

The ghosts? We got 5, and 3 poltergiests. No, I haven’t seen one. One lady pooh-poohed ghosts until she saw a lady wearing a bonnet, in shimmering light, come through the kitchen. She was gobsmacked. I mean, you see ghosts at night, not in broad daylight!

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What Louisa Adjoa Parker says about The Old Boot:

Inspired by being told by several locals that the Boot Inn is the oldest pub in Weymouth, and talking to Robbie the barman, over a sparkling water about its history and ghost stories.