The Boot Inn Northop

Prior to the year 828, Northop was known by its long associated title of Llan Eurgain: ‘The Holy Place of Eurgain.’  Eurgain is chronicled to have established Christianity in the area, firstly through the creation of a monastery at Mynachlog, Northop and then with the creation of the first Church at Northop in about the year 550 AD.

It is recorded that originally the village was called ‘North Hope’ (as I called the fictional village in Excalibur Reborn) and Hope, near Caergwrle was called East Hope which later became just ‘Hope.’

Northop (Llaneurgain) is the only village in the UK with that name - there are four villages in Lincolnshire with the old Anglo-Saxon derived name 'Northorpe' meaning the North Village or Farmstead. This is the likely derivation of the Northop village name, which has been shortened to the spelling as we see it today.

Modern Northop sits close to the A55 and is a village where most traffic just passes the village by or indeed is used as a village where car-sharing takes place,  but no-one takes the time to take a look around the place.  The iconic image with this blog is of the ancient Boot Inn at Northop, unusually without cars outside! Two hundred years ago the scene would have been packed with horses and coaches on their way either to Chester or Holyhead.

Incidentally, The Boot Inn was more than a coach house at one time and was used almost as a local tax office as well as being an ale house. Censuses record that Jonathan Astbury (1823-1890), during the 19th Century was the Northop Rate Collector and Inn proprietor.  How life has changed.

The Boot Inn was also a favourite haunt of teenage me and my contemporaries, so it's always been a great pub.  It was a great pub in the 70s and today, it has a great new menu and is well worth a visit if you are in the village.

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