Sot's Hole
These photographs were taken at around the time of the 1970s? renovation. Contributed to the archive by the Gibson family.
The location of an unlicensed alehouse called Sot’s Hole is unknown but it is thought to be in Willow End, off Bates lane. It is here that a beer could be obtained around the 1850s. However it was probably not licensed premises. Today there is a renovated house in Willow End, which dates from an earlier date, that would have been in the vicinity where Sot’s Hole probably stood. In 1878 Ordnance Survey map of Weston Turville a number of residences are shown in this vicinity. Apart from the one shown in the picture which have subsequently been destroyed.
We have a few references to Sot's Hole in our publications. It is not mentioned in the 1872 Return of Public Houses and Beer Houses. [3]
"'Ria' Piddington had a sweet shop - known as the 'bomb and dagger' to local children in Sot's Hole, Bates Lane in the 1930s.[2]
"Beer could also be obtained from an outlet known locally as 'Sot's Hole', situated in a barn in Bates Lane"[2
There is an interesting clue provided in "Much More than a Village Schoolmaster" - Mr. Biddle told me that there were 14 pubs in Weston in the old days & that there was one called “The Sots’ Hole” in a cottage owned by Mrs. Vesey in Bates’ Lane".[4]
Residents
Frederick James (1875 - 1941) & Maria Piddington lived in "Sots Hole" which was at the time 26 Bates Lane. Maria (nee Purssell, 1870 - 1947) operated "Sots Hole" as a tobacconist and sweet shop. Frederick and Maria were both a natives of Weston Turville and lived there all their lifes.
Cyril Read
References
^ Mid 1800s Pub Crawl by Glynn White.
^ "Weston Turville A History" by Hamish Eaton