Winterslow Hut
| Winterslow Hut | |
|---|---|
 Winterslow Hut c. 1899 | |
 | |
| Alternative names |
|
| General information | |
| Status | Ceased trading in 2007. Converted to 4 modern dwellings in 2010. |
| Type | Coaching inn |
| Location | London Road |
| Town or city | Winterslow, Wiltshire |
| Country | England |
| Coordinates | 51°06′43″N 1°40′14″W / 51.111967°N 1.670541°W |
Winterslow Hut was a late 17th-century coaching inn situated on the London to Exeter stagecoach route at Winterslow, Wiltshire, England.[1][2] Its isolated location on Salisbury Plain between Salisbury and Andover, with a spring close by, made it a useful resting place for drovers, and later for stage and mail coaches.[3] The quiet surroundings and solitude, interrupted only by the arrival of the coaches, also drew the critic and essayist William Hazlitt to the inn in the early 19th-century, where he regularly rented a room and produced some of his greatest writing, including Lectures on the English Comic Writers (1819) and the first volume of Table-Talk (1821).[2][4]
Winterslow Hut was brought to national attention when an escaped lioness attacked the horses of the London-bound Quicksilver mail coach as it drew up outside the inn during the night of 20 October 1816.[5]
During World War II, the inn was used as off-base officers' accommodation for Royal Air Force night fighter crews stationed at RAF Middle Wallop.[6]
References
- ^ Hazlitt, William (1850). Winterslow: Essays and Characters Written There. London: David Bogue. p. v.
- ^ a b Wu, Duncan (1 February 2006). "William Hazlitt: The lion in Winterslow". The Independent. London. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
- ^ Riddle, Annie (25 November 2009). "Plan to turn hotel into homes". Salisbury Journal. Salisbury. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
- ^ Harper, Charles George (1899). The Exeter Road. London: Chapman & Hall. pp. 156–157.
- ^ Kirby, R.S., ed. (1820). Kirby's Wonderful and Eccentric Museum. Vol. 6. London: R.S. Kirby. p. 20.
- ^ Rawnsley, Cecil Frederick; Wright, Robert (1957). Night Fighter. London: Collins. p. 167.