The Wiltshire pub’s history that features a fly-on-the-wall documentary, a controversial WW2 general, a mysterious death and a rather large potato
A historic Wiltshire pub that’s being saved by its community has a fascinating history.
The Grade II-listed Ivy Inn’s past has it all … a fly-on-the-wall TV documentary, suggestions that one of World War Two’s most flamboyant generals had a few sneaky pints there, a mysterious death in the distant past and a really rather large potato.
The pub in Heddington has been closed for months after current owners Wadworth Brewery – which bought it for £400 in 1911 – put it up for sale in May 2024.
The 17th Century thatched-roofed inn is loved by people locally and regionally throughout the county so the closure sparked an instant community response and a group called Friends of The Ivy was set up as a community benefit society to save it.
The pub is listed as an ‘asset of community value’ until 2029 which makes it highly unlikely anyone can apply for a change of use for it to be turned into houses or anything else.
The Friends have a share scheme just about ready to go where people can invest a minimum of £100 in the pub but they need to have struck a deal first with Wadworth’s over the sale and negotiations are ongoing but the final cost to buy the pub, renovate it and supplying a contingency fund for the first year of operations will be at least £750,000.
The pub has been in the news before back in the mid-1970s when the BBC filmed an eight-part series called Diary Of A Village which featured Christmas Eve 1975 celebrations filmed in the pub and screened the following year.
And when it was, the landlord at the time, Bill Pitt, was so glued to the screen he’s reputed to have said “the first customer who comes in now I’ll crown him” if someone dared to walk in and ask to be served while the programme was on.
The BBC paid the village £500 to do the filming – that would be around £4,000 today – and five villagers each added in £1,000 to establish an Amenities Committee in Heddington to do good in the community.
They set up an agricultural fair which eventually became the famous Heddington and Stockley Steam Rally that’s now a huge event and in 2022 attracted 9,000 people into the village with the rally staged in the fields next to The Ivy Inn.
That one featured the world championship lawn mower racing final, European standard tractor pulling and a fly past by a Lancaster bomber and spitfires. It’s hoped the next rally will be in 2026.
Legendary US General George Patton – arguably World War Two’s most charismatic and controversial general – stayed in Heddington in the build-up to D-Day in 1994 as there was a big American army camp nearby preparing for the invasion of Europe.
The village’s current patriarch, 90-year-old Duffy, was a child back then and can clearly recall the general staying in a farmhouse from March to May. It’s thought he must have popped into The Ivy at some point.
Duffy was also a good amateur football player in his time and set up charity all-star games in the village with the likes of comedians Mike and Bernie Winters, Carry On legend Bernard Breslau and 1966 England World Cup players.
Harvest festivals are always a major event in Wiltshire and celebrations in The Ivy regularly raised more than £3,000 for local charities right up to more recent times.
The pub’s roots can be traced as far back as 1684 when it was known as Smiths. When it was sold for £360 in 1871 it was listed as a dwellinghouse, beerhouse, bakery and shop.
It’s name had changed slightly to Smithies by then but was renamed The Ivy Inn in 1898 when it was owned by carpenter and wheelwright Henry Hunt who saw its potential as ‘good accommodation for cyclists, tourists and visitors.’
After it was bought by Wadworth Brewery in 1911 the first licensee was James Hunt who almost immediately became a local celebrity for digging up a giant potato from his field weighing a whopping 3lbs 9oz.
James retired in 1931 but a year later when he was 68 was tragically found dead in a pond a quarter of a mile from his home at Fairview Cottages in Heddington.
An inquest failed to clear up the question as to how he got into the water so the coroner simply recorded a verdict of Found Drowned.
Over the years the pub has had many plaudits – including being rated number 18 in the 2007 listing of Wiltshire’s Top 100 Pubs by Wiltshire Life.
And the countless thousands of customers who have passed through its doors over the centuries have loved it too so how about this for a final accolade from a letter writer in the Gazette and Herald in 2010 who wrote: “Nowhere in Wiltshire, or probably the world, can the bacon butties be so large and so good.”
That’s certainly quite a target for Friends of The Ivy to live up to when the pub reopens.
You can support Friends of The Ivy, and preserve this important part of history, by visiting our online share purchase page.
