Bursdon Moor, Nr. Hartland Bideford, Devon   EX39 6HB Tel: (01237) 441724 Fax: (01237) 441403 E-mail :  TheWestCInn@aol.com

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The West Country Inn has an air of the mysterious about it. Perhaps it is the nearness of Bursdon Moor, a wild place, especially in the winter. Or perhaps it is the comparative isolation of this inn. But it does seem to be a place of strange secrecy. Like many of the inns in this district, it is an old one. With the exception of a gap of ten years it has been an inn since the early seventeenth century.

 

Years ago this inn was the place where letters were delivered, not only for the inn, but for local farms. These letters were then displayed in the window, and the "bush-telegraph" would inform farmers when there was a letter for them. The inn is still the centre of the small and scattered community in this part of the parish.

 

The present main road between Bideford and Bude was built long before the motor car, and so the West Country Inn, like the New Inn at Hartland Square, was a coaching inn. The remains of the smithy can be seen opposite the inn. There was also carpenter's shop which has now disappeared and the stables have been converted into the bottom part of the bar. Horses were changed at the Hoops Inn at Horns Cross, the West Country Inn and at Kilkhampton, and each inn had its own horses returned on the journey back. Owing to the number and length of the stops, it took almost all day for the coach to travel from Bideford to the West Country Inn.

 

Many years ago, there were West Country Inn fairs, held in the spring and autumn, when livestock was sold and hiring of labour was arranged. At one of these fairs, a 17 year old girl called Elvira, was taken from the Inn and murdered. It is her ghost, and the ghost of her killer (who committed suicide), that haunt the Inn. Will you sleep in our Haunted room !