History

The Hope & Anchor is an historic building, with some parts of it dating back to the 17th century.

The original building was enlarged at the end of the 18th century when the newly contructed Somerset canal ran close to the east side of the inn. It was about this time that the present name was adopted in an attempt to gain trade from the barges.

The advent of the railways saw the decline of canal traffic and the canal was closed in 1898. The Somerset & Dorset railway track ran across the Midford viaduct directly above the Hope & Anchor.

The single line section between Midford & Bath required a special safety device known as “The Tablet”. A train about to enter this section had to pick up the tablet by means of a mechanical catcher. If the tablet was not there it meant another train was already on that stretch of track. Sometimes the act of giving up the tablet on the outward journeywould result in the (accidental?) dropping of the tablet down the embankment into the garden of the inn.

By some strange quirk of fate, this seemed to happen a lot more frequently during opening hours  and climbing down to retrieve it was thirsty work!

The Hope & Anchor was formerly owned by Courage Breweries and became a free house in 1976.