The Plough Pub

The Skeleton at the Plough Inn

The Plough Inn went to auction, again, recently and I have had a number of enquiries, mostly around the suspicious discovery of a body, since this last happened (see previous post) so thought I would give a short update.

The north part of the building itself is beleived to date to the 17th century with other parts added in the 19th century and later. Remember just because a building has a given date doesn’t mean it has had the same use all that time. The earliest confirmed record I have for use as a pub is Edward Farrow in 1795 although I suspect it is, as a pub, older. It stayed with the Farrow family until c.1860. Ann Farrow died in 1860.

By 1864 the landlord was Henry Filewood. His son, Frederick Filewood, in 1882 attempted to commit suicide, in the same year that son was also charged with theft.  Frederick at the time was about 16 years old.

The landlord changed in 1888 and by October it was Harry Barrett.  He had some work done to the roof and on 9th November 1888 a skeleton of an infant was discovered in the roof. The skeleton was wrapped partly in a dress and partly with a newspaper.  The newspaper was dated 1868.  The assumption is the body was placed there in 1868, but it could have been any time after. It is not known if the baby was born alive or not and details surrounding this remain a mystery.