Winterslow Hut

Winterslow Hut was a late 17th-century coaching inn situated on the London to Exeter stagecoach route at Winterslow, Wiltshire, England.[1][2] Its isolated location on Salisbury Plain between Salisbury and Andover, with a spring close by, made it a useful resting place for drovers, and later for stage and mail coaches.[3] The quiet surroundings and solitude, interrupted only by the arrival of the coaches, also drew the critic and essayist William Hazlitt to the inn in the early 19th-century, where he regularly rented a room and produced some of his greatest writing, including Lectures on the English Comic Writers (1819) and the first volume of Table-Talk (1821).[2][4]

The attack on 20 October 1816

Winterslow Hut
Winterslow Hut c. 1899
Alternative names
  • The Pheasant Hotel
  • The Pheasant Inn
  • The Pheasantry
General information
StatusCeased trading in 2007. Converted to 4 modern dwellings in 2010.
TypeCoaching inn
LocationLondon Road
Town or cityWinterslow, Wiltshire
CountryEngland
Coordinates51.111967°N 1.670541°W / 51.111967; -1.670541

Winterslow Hut was brought to national attention when an escaped lioness attacked the horses of the London-bound Quicksilver mail coach as it drew up outside the inn during the night of 20 October 1816.[5]

During World War II, the inn was used as off-base officers' accommodation for Royal Air Force night fighter crews stationed at RAF Middle Wallop.[6]

References
  1. Hazlitt, William (1850). Winterslow: Essays and Characters Written There. London: David Bogue. p. v.
  2. Wu, Duncan (1 February 2006). "William Hazlitt: The lion in Winterslow". The Independent. London. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  3. Riddle, Annie (25 November 2009). "Plan to turn hotel into homes". Salisbury Journal. Salisbury. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
  4. Harper, Charles George (1899). The Exeter Road. London: Chapman & Hall. pp. 156–157.
  5. Kirby, R.S., ed. (1820). Kirby's Wonderful and Eccentric Museum. 6. London: R.S. Kirby. p. 20.
  6. Rawnsley, Cecil Frederick; Wright, Robert (1957). Night Fighter. London: Collins. p. 167.
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