Packhorse

Week Street was a very narow thoroughfare running eastwards off Old Town Street. For the most part it ran parallel to Treville Street although at its eastern extremity it turned at right angles to feed straight into Treville Street. In the absence of any images of this road it is hard to tell whether the ‘Old Packhorse‘, which we find mentioned in a directory of 1798, was the same building as the nineteenth century ‘Packhorse’ or whether the latter was a ‘new’development on the same or similar site.

The name itself harks back to that pre-lorry, pre-railway, pre-canal when horses were loaded up with packages – of wool or corn or whatever – and driven from town to town, often in large groups – trains – like a caravan of camels in desert conditions. Certain pubs specialised in refreshing both the horses and their drivers.

Licensees

1798 - Edward Janes
1804 - John Crocker
1823 - R Willcocks
1830 - Mary Mitchell
1844 - William Davis
1850 - Richard Rowe
1852 - Richard Rowe Jnr
1873 - James Pengelly