Boringdon Arms

John Parker whose family had owned the ancient manor of Boringdon for over two hundred years, was elevated to the peerage as the 1st Baron of Boringdon. In 1788 he was succeeded by his son, also John Parker, who appears to enjoy the possibly unique distinction, almost two centuries on, of having two public houses named after him, each established in his day, each bearing his coat of Arms, but each with a different title. For in 1797, as the second Baron Boringdon, he enclosed part of Turnchapel as a dry dock and, doubtless, it was then that Boringdon Road became the village’s main concourse, and home to the Boringdon Arms.

The thirty years later, in 1827, the year he commissioned the iron bridge between Laira and Pomphlett, we find an early reference to the Morley Arms – so named after the Baron’s elevation to the title of the 1st Earl of Morley (and Viscount Boringdon of North Molton) in 1815.

Licensees

1850 - Jane Smith
1862 - W Smith
1870 - Abraham Ryder
1878 - William Rowe
1883 - John Williams
1893 - William Rogers
1902 - Mrs Anne Brown
1906 - Walter Smith
1910 - Philip Curson
1914 - William Watts
1919 - John Watts
1926 - Edgar Allen
1936 - Edward Goss