The Midwinterfest was approaching and Mrs. Bygone Boozer and I were off once more to see Woody the Boreray in Old Bolingbroke. If you haven't met Woody before you can read all about him by clicking here. The packet that I was waiting for must have been held up in the Christmas rush, but no worries, I could simply use the courier's app to redirect delivery to the local Parcelshop. With concerns regarding delivery removed, we set off for Lincolnshire. No bikes this trip as we were only staying for the one night following a seasonalish meal, washed down with a couple of pints of Toasty Roasty from Ferry Ales Brewery, at the Red Lion in Raithby, .
With no real gallivanting about on this short sojourn, here's another bygone boozer that we passed on our previous visit. Peering at old 25-inch Ordnance Survey maps often suggests the location of bygones and so it was with the subject of this post. The Packet Inn was marked as a beer house on the map close to Moorhouses Bridge, near Tumby Woodside and we pedalled out to find it.
Moorhouses Bridge takes the road over the Newham Drain, part of the Witham Navigable Drains system, which drains the land in the area before finally emptying into the River Witham at Anton's Gowt Lock.
There are some references to drainage taking place as early as the twelfth century, but the bulk of the modern drains really stems from a couple of Acts of Parliament in 1801 and 1803. Over the years the drains were widened and became capable of being navigated and this probably is the origin of the name of our bygone boozer, as packets could now travel into the fens, carrying goods such as coal.
Now in residential use, its name still retains reference to its former life.
And there we have it. Post finished. There's no history of the Packet Inn, no quirky tales about the Packet Inn or its landlords. Just a couple of pictures of the place. I have been unable to find out anything at all about this bygone boozer. No mention in any censuses and nothing in any old trade directories either. OK, I lie. I have unearthed one thing. I've discovered that it closed in the 1950s. This comes from Donald Roberts who used to live in the shop next door.
Early Midwinterfest celebrations over, it was time to say farewell to Woody and return home. As we travelled westwards the rain commenced. I was glad that I'd used the app to instruct the courier to deliver my packet to the local Parcelshop rather than attempt a delivery at home. It wouldn't have been good to pull up at the front door to find a packet wrapped in sodden brown paper sitting on the doorstep, would it? It certainly wouldn't, but that's exactly what I did find. As I picked it up the paper wrapping just fell away exposing the somewhat damp contents. I'm not wanting to name the company, but evri time that I use their app to instruct their courier to leave a packet in my safe place the request is ignored. Just like evri request to redirect a delivery to the local Parcelshop is ignored. If anyone from the courier company is reading this, it seems that evri time I use your app you ignore me. Just Packet Inn!
The Ordnance Survey map extract is copyright and has been reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland under the terms of this CC BY licence.
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