I’ve recently returned from a five-day break in Dorset, which is on the Southern Coast of the UK.
We had a wonderful few days away discovering the county of Dorset, where we discovered some stunning scenery (watch out for another post about that).
For now, I wanted to tell you a bit about the place we stayed at, The Acorn Inn in Evershot.
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- Acorn Inn smaller sign
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- Acorn Inn sign
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- Acorn Inn
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- Acorn Inn Side View
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- Acorn Inn Front View
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- Toby at the rear of the Inn
This is the place that inspired me to write my Miss Marple short story. If you haven’t read it yet, then please have a read as I am sure you will then see why the village of Evershot inspired me to write the story. Part 1 can be found here and part 2 here. Part 3 will be posted very soon.
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- Evershot High Street
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- Evershot High Street – towards the Church
The Acorn Inn boasts a worthy history; built as a coaching inn in the 16th century it was originally called the Kings Arms and brewed its own ales with water drawn from the source of the river Frome.
When the Acorn was built there were six other pubs in the village! Now only the Acorn Inn remains.
It is believed that Judge Jeffrey’s used what is now the lounge of the Inn, as the court for sentencing local convicts to be hanged.
Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles is set in the immediate area. Evershot is referred to as Evershead and the Acorn Inn was called ‘The Sow and Acorn’. Tess walked many miles to meet Angel Clare’s parents. She stopped half way in Evershead and breakfasted at Tess Cottage just next to the church. The Acorn Inn also features as ‘The Sow & Acorn’ in two of Hardy’s other powerful short stories: In ‘Interlopers at the Knap‘ Philip Hall collected Sally’s dress that had been left here by the carrier and in ‘The First Countess of Wessex‘ Squire Dornell’s man Tupcombe, sat in the inglenook in the hope of hearing news of Betty.
I thought the Inn might be haunted, but unfortunately it seems nobody has ever saw anything paranormal.
Evershot is a quintessential English village, with a church, village shop, bakery, hotel, deer park and, of course, the Inn. The centre of the village has remained largely unchanged in the last 150 years. Historically, it began as a Boar pen around 1,100 years ago and as the source of the river Frome is located just behind the church, the population grew rapidly. Population growth has dropped in the last century and today is around 200 people.
The village school was founded by Henry Stickland in 1628 to “to teach men true learning and fear of God”. It is now a Church of England primary school.
The village Bakery has been here for 150 years. It specialises in artisan bread which has been made the same way in all that time.
In more recent times Evershot’s claim to fame is being the film set for part of the latest film adaptation of Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’ starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Toni Collette amongst others.
Covey View 