The Ilchester Arms • Abbotsbury

 

The Ilchester Arms was once known as the Ship Inn. The inn was mentioned in the trial of Elizabeth Canning.

 Her story became one of the most sensational mysteries of 18^th century London. Elizabeth was an 18 year old maid servant to a house in the City of London. On the 1^st January 1753 she disappeared. No sign of her was found until the evening of 29^th January. 

She reappeared at her mother’s house in a deplorable state. She was injured and claimed to have lived on bread and water for the month while confined to a loft by her kidnappers. She accused a women and her household some ten miles distant of the crime, though the loft belonging to the woman did not match the description provided by Elizabeth. Two women at the house were arrested and put on trial. One of the women, Mary Squires, was said to be a gypsy and this prejudice went some way to convincing the public of her guilt. 

Feelings ran high on both sides of the case and when the women were found guilty; it was the trial judge Sir Crisp Gascoyne who decided to re-investigate it himself. You see, Mary Squires and her family had claimed to be in Abbotsbury at the time of the alleged kidnapping. In Abbotsbury she had witnesses. Many reputable characters from the village were willing to swear to the fact that Mary had been seen at the Ship Inn over New Year, so couldn’t possibly have been involved. Mary had been sentenced to death at the first trial, but after Gascoyne’s successful investigation, she was pardoned in the following May. 

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Canning would go on to be arrested for perjury and was sentenced to transportation for seven years. She was placed on a convict ship in August 1754, landing at Wethersfield, Connecticut. She would settle there, raising a family and dying in June 1773. The real cause of her disappearance never came to light and is still a mystery to this day. Some suggest she may have wilfully disappeared to deal with an unwanted pregnancy or deliver a baby, and only came up with the kidnapping story to cover her absence. We will never know.

This historic inn is also home to several ghosts, including a spectral dog and a man said to be a coin collector. Apparently he jangles his way through the corridors! As Abbotbury was a Royalist village during the Civil War, there is also said to be the ghost of a Cavalier, perhaps killed when the Parliamentarians attacked in 1644.

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GRID REF: SY 57679 85338

Sidney Towills • Abbotsbury

 

Sydney was born in Soho, London on 14^th May 1900, before moving to West Street in Abbotsbury with his parents. After leaving school he worked as a farm labourer. With the First World War well under way, on his 18^th birthday as a brown haired, blue eyed healthy teenager, he joined the Royal Navy, signing up for 12 years’ service. In a cruel twist of fate, he would never go on to complete his training on board HMS Powerful. Just seven weeks later, on 2^nd July 1918, Sydney died ‘from disease’ at the Royal Naval Hospital, Plymouth. The disease was empyema. This was possibly a result of contracting pneumonia. Empyema is when pus collects in the pleural space, which is between the lung and the inner surface of the chest cavity. In pneumonia the bacterial infection forms in the lung and the pus can be coughed out, but when it develops into empyema in the pleural space it cannot, and would need to be extracted surgically.

Sydney was buried here in St Nicholas’ churchyard and nearby is a headstone to his parents. His father died a year later and his mother in 1928.

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GRID REF: SY 57755 85185

Abbey Barn • Abbotsbury

It dates to the 14^th century and gives some clue as to how much the monastery complex must have dominated the landscape here. Half of it was de-roofed in the mid-17^th century, but the structure is still impressive. It is now Grade I listed and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. If you walk to the end of the roofless section and peer through the doorway, you can see the Abbey dovecote. In fact, walk anywhere around here you will see remnants of the abbey farm complex. The diary, the fishponds, the mill… It was a hive of medieval activity.

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GRID REF: SY 57769 85029