Behind Bars in the Doone Valley Country

By Nigel Wakefield

our bizarre experiences in buying a failed pub on the road into the doone valley on exmoor, the local people, the tourists, the activities and the whole way of life with the real people on exmoor. r.d.blackmore's book lorna doone has always been thought of as pure fiction, but the lives and activities of true local exmoor people would have provided a very sound basis for his story and possibly a modern day update.
Sadly I am restricted in commenting on the local differences, because this is not fiction, but a good writer would certainly have a good basis to provide an interesting story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nigel Wakefield
• Release date: Aug 20, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476359090

Nigel Wakefield

I am a keen fisherman and have been a diver commercially, owned a number of pubs and catering businesses.I am also the Editor of www.buyingapub.com an information site for the Pub and Restaurant Industry, in addition www.barrel-dregs.com which exposes all the dubious activities by unscrupulous companies with a degree of humour, they are always worth reading, written by a number of professionals under nom de plumes.

Book preview

Behind Bars in the Doone Valley, Country

or

The Crazy Tales of a Devon Pub

By

Nigel Wakefield

Foreword

The pressures and boredom of a 9-5.00 job, finally got through to me, in that moment of supreme madness I opted to buy a country pub on the main road into the Doone Valley on Exmoor.

My Wife has reminded me for years of the sheer folly of this lunacy, the crazy world that we joined, we frequently thought that we could have landed from Mars, our normal standards of living vanished overnight, to be, replaced by an existence that takes a lot of believing, but it is all true.

Because we survived and became part of the community, we now love to drive to Exmoor and have that affinity that only comes with the involvement with the real people of Exmoor, however bizarre the stories are.

R.D.Blackmore wrote Lorna Doone, supposedly a book of fictional characters, but having lived there and been involved with the families that have lived there for years, I am sure Blackmore was writing about the real people of the time with some poetic licence, certainly at the time that we lived there.

Behind Bars in the Doone Valley Country

(Exmoor)

By Nigel Wakefield

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 Nigel Wakefield

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Chapter 1, The Rockford Inn

One of my major mistakes in life, was to buy a West Country Pub on the main road into the Doone Valley on Exmoor. Trying to explain to my wife why we were about to give up our beautiful house and the boredom of a nine to five job, to live beside a raging torrent of a river on Exmoor. Initially a very dirty pub with very primitive facilities, took a lot of imagination and I am still, regularly reminded about, whenever I view a pub for sale these days.

In a moment of mental weakness and swayed by the fact that I had successfully advised two landlords on upgrading their hostelries, I agreed to buy The Rockford Inn at Brendon beside the East Lyn River on Exmoor.

Having viewed dozens of pubs in the most dreadful states and isolated positions, all reputed to be doing the most incredible business, or if not had the most impressive potential, as described by the Agents. The incredible business that was, in some cases would appear to have been during the War, I am not sure which War. My concerns were with up to date business not prehistory.

The Rockford Inn, was or is, situated on the main access road to the Doone Valley, on Exmoor, with four National Trust Walks finishing, by the bridge over the East Lyn River outside the pub. This made me feel that we would at least have a regular stream of Walkers and Traffic arriving outside our door for a large part of the year. In addition, Salmon and Trout fishing was a major attraction as well.

The owner at the time was a larger than life Character, who had made a fortune out of the Canvey Island Flood Disaster, he spent a lot of the money in the more suspect Clubs in London and beat a retreat to Exmoor when various people started enquiring about his welfare. This and other information was given to us by the Regional Crime Squad, who were continually enquiring about his activities.

I had arranged to meet the outgoing Landlord for some instruction and general information on the running of the pub, which is customary and fairly, essential if one has never owned a pub before.

Having left our house in Newton Abbot in plenty of time for the arranged meeting, the weather was foul and I had a dreadful head cold. I took the wrong turning and realised I was heading for Barnstaple, as I approached Barnstaple a Police Car appeared behind me and I duly drove at what I thought was the correct speed limit of forty miles per hour and found myself being stopped for exceeding the thirty mile per hour limit. I tried to explain to the Policeman that I thought it was a forty mile per hour limit, but he was feeling decidedly scratchy and gave me a ticket.

Great start to the day.

Chapter 2, The Outgoing Landlord

Driving from Barnstaple to Rockford a black Daimler Limousine passed me with a vaguely familiar face, going in the opposite direction, I discovered to my horror later, that I was right, it was familiar, the about to be, outgoing Landlord.

Arriving at Rockford the pub was completely, shut up, various people were knocking on the door to see if it was open and no sign of the Landlord or Staff.

Enquiries at the shop opposite revealed that he had left for London in his Daimler Limousine to celebrate having got a Mug to exchange Contracts on the pub and would not be back until completion day, to pick up the Stock at Valuation cheque.

My heart sank for a second time that day. I had that horrible feeling that my Wife and I were about to go on a very rapid learning curve. My potential new neighbour informed me, whilst I waited. Hoping that the latest information of the rapidly departed was incorrect, that he was