HISTORY
The village of Froyle is recorded in the Domesday Book as “Froli in Neatham Hundred”. At that time it was land belonging to St Mary’s Abbey in Winchester and consisted of just three fields: Combefield, Coxfield and Burrowfield. Its name derives from Medieval English ‘frow’ meaning swift, and Old English ‘wielle’ meaning stream. The village is situated above the Pilgrims’ Way which leads from Winchester to Canterbury. Pilgrims were thought to have taken a diversion through it during the wetter months. By 1316 the village had adopted its modern name. It became divided into two parts: Upper Froyle, which centred around the church and manor house, and Lower Froyle, which grew up around the local farms. By 1765, most of the estate was owned by William Draper. Froyle was also later known as the ‘Village of Saints’, because of the 19 statues dotted around the village that were purchased by Sir Hubert Miller at the start of the 20th century.
The Anchor Inn is first mentioned in the Parish records of 1806, but the building itself dates back to the 16th century, when the main industries in the area were wool and cider making. Its name derives from a passage in St. Paul’s Gospel: “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope”, hence the name Hope and Anchor often seen. As in many places the ‘Hope’ was dropped and the pub became the Anchor.
The inn has undergone several phases of redevelopment in its long history. The exterior of the southern end of the building is rendered and painted on the ground floor, where the entrances to the Saloon and Snug Bar are shaded from the elements by a tiled awning supported by strong wooden posts. Above that on the first floor the exterior is hung with red tiles. Some courses of the hung tiles have been finished with a scalloped edge rather than being square cut like their neighbours, and this gives a pleasing decorative design to the surface of the upper storey. Only on entering this part of the inn is it possible to appreciate the original wooden structure of the oldest part of the house. The low ceilings and exposed beams all give clues to the age of the original farmhouse which forms the nucleus of the building and dates back to the 16th century. Further to the north, the building was extended in the 19th century. The large pitched roof encloses a high ceilinged room which forms the dining area. This part of the house is of wooden construction and is faced with shiplap timbers. The most northern facing part of the house also features the wooden cladding of the central section, and has two large doors which have now been converted into windows. These appear to have originally been stable doors. Like many other houses in the village, the Anchor possessed an indoor well.
In 1840, the Anchor and the land it stood on were owned by Henry Hall of Alton. The surrounding fields were owned by the Burninghams, the wealthy farm owners who built Froyle House on the site of Cattley’s Farm. By the middle of the 19th century hop picking was at its peak, and there were several malthouses and a brewery in Froyle. Henry Hall also owned the French Horn near Alton Butts, Chawton. In his heyday, he rented a brewery from Montague Knight in Alton. On retirement he was unable to find a tenant to succeed him and the brewery closed. The Anchor was then sold to the Courage Co. Ltd in Alton. During this time, meetings of the Overseers of the Poor were regularly conducted on the premises.
The Register of Licences for Alton district records that on 31st January 1882 the spirits licence for the Anchor was transferred from publican William Smith to James Wigley. By 1891, the inn was being run by the 28 year old widow Ann Smoker, who lived there with her mother Maria, her 7 year-old daughter Ethel, along with lodger William Coombes, a retired agricultural labourer. In 1901, James Knight was the pub landlord. He lived there with his wife Emma, his son Leonard who was a bricklayer, and his daughter Florence. William died in 1913, leaving his wife and daughter in charge. They lodged two farmhands, Arthur Rowell and Charlie Lovett. After the First World War, their cousin Ann Knight took over as innkeeper, and stayed until 1925. From that year until 1958 William Radford was the publican. He was succeeded by William and ‘Queenie’ Stroud who stayed until 1969. In 2007 the Inn was bought from Courage and Co. Ltd by the Miller’s Collection. Very little has changed in the pub during the last 60 years, apart from gentle refurbishment.
