A dancing bear, girls of bad character and smuggling: The history of Sidmouth's The Old Ship Inn

Ed: The Old Ship Inn, a Grade II listed property, is now Costa Coffee on Old Fore Street in Sidmouth.

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Further research on The Old Ship Inn has revealed that in addition to its close links to smuggling, the old building has had an interesting past.

A newspaper article from 1859 reads: "John Cawley, landlord of The Ship Inn was summoned to the court for keeping a disorderly house.

"PC Pearse claimed that on 27 September he visited the property and it was full of people.

"In the tap room, there were about 30 men, women and boys, a man was playing a fiddle and there were girls of bad character and people dancing.

"The fiddling and dancing continued until gone half past one o'clock in the morning."

However, there were no complaints or witnesses so Mr Cawley was fined just £2 including costs.

There are also reports of the pub being a dosshouse [that is, a very cheap place to stay overnight] in the late Victorian period, frequented by tramps, dogs, and monkeys who accompanied the organ grinders [buskers] that visited the town.

Apparently, the stench was so bad that townsfolk stopped using Old Fore Street for a time.

On one occasion, a man with a dancing bear tried to enter the premises, causing panic amongst the inhabitants and the police were called.

I have also heard that a 'penny hang' was available upstairs.

Hanging out

This was a crude sleeping arrangement where a rope was hung from one end of the building to the other and for the price of a penny you could drape yourself across it and 'enjoy' a warm and dry night's rest.

More by Graham Symington:

The history of the now-demolished Blackmore Hall

The history of Sidmouth's Connaught Gardens