Topsham pub gets new Historic England recognition

Bridge Inn's 'listing' is updated

A Devon pub is being 'relisted' in recognition of its historic importance.

The Bridge Inn in Topsham is Grade II listed, with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) now recognising more of its attributes.

It joins 10 other hostelries across the country to gain new listing, after the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) Pub Heritage Group put forward a list of important pub to the DCMS in conjunction with Historic England.

Relisting essentially involves updating and adding to listing descriptions of buildings or sites on the National Heritage List, some of which were written 30 years ago. 
 
The old coaching inn on the banks of the River Clyst has been run by the same family since 1897.

Although largely an 18th century building, it could go back further and still retains many of its historic features. The entrance to the Bridge Inn leads to a panelled corridor, on the left of which is the tap room, with fixed seating and rare historic advertising above the door promoting Kennaway’s Scotch whisky.
 
A little further on is the back of an old settle or freestanding bench seat, glazed at the top, forming a snug. It features a large stone fireplace, a salt cupboard and a hatch to a parlour through which drinks are fetched from the ground-floor ‘cellar’.
 
The parlour area is a private space in which customers may be invited to sit. Only a few other pubs in the country are thought to have similar rooms where customers can sit in a space behind a working serving area.
 
At the rear, the malt-house room is only used for functions or as an overflow when the pub is busy. The bar counter here was installed in the mid-1960s but the brick fireplace is inter-war and one of the old hop shoots survives. Between the cellar and the malt-house is a brick-built furnace that provided hot air for the malting operations.
 
Full details of the Bridge Inn listing are here: https://bit.ly/3zWM6aL