The Anchor Inn is a 17th century coaching inn with a rich and storied past that blurs the lines between history and legend. Something we know as fact is that the celebrated English novelist Richard Doddridge Blackmore was a patron in the late 19th century and found inspiration here, featuring the inn in his most famous work "Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor".
Although a work of fiction, Blackmore incorporated real people and events into the story and none more colourful than local legend Tom Faggus. Did this affable rogue truly exist in a form akin to the story's character? That's a difficult question to answer but certainly the name of Tom Faggus was known long before Blackmore put pen to paper.
As the story goes, Faggus was an Exmoorian highwayman of the 17th century, feared by all rich travellers who had reason to pass through the area. Yet for his fearsome reputation, there is no known record of him ever taking a life. Born in North Molton, he was a respected landowner who initially earned his living as a blacksmith. However, he was cheated out of his land and smithy and forced to take to the road with nothing more than his faithful strawberry mare Winnie. So began his career as a highwayman, stealing from wealthy travellers and sharing generously with the poor in something akin to a West Country Robin Hood.
Renowned for his keen wits and cunning, there is many a story of his evading the local authorities with aplomb. In one such tale, word of his travel to Exford was leaked to the authorities who quickly dispatched a team large enough to capture even the most determined highwayman. On encountering this, Faggus quickly donned a disguise and strode up to the team with unwavering confidence, casually questioning them as to why they were congregating in such numbers. When told they were searching for a notorious highwayman, Faggus offered to join the group and aid them in their search - a proposal the witless lawmen readily accepted. After some fruitless hunting through the cold morning, he suggested they discharge and reload their weapons lest the damp conditions cause a misfire when they finally apprehended the ruthless highwayman. The lawmen agreed and discharged their weapons; one can only imagine their chargrin when Faggus raised his pistols and proceeded to rob each and every one of them before making good his escape.
Alas, the career of a 17th century highwayman is not known for its longevity and it is here that we return to The Anchor Inn, for it is in this very inn that the legendary Tom Faggus was finally apprehended in 1671. Blackmore honoured Faggus with a happy ending in "Lorna Doone" but sadly the annals of local history are not so forgiving. Without wanting to put too much of a dampener on this whistle-stop tour of Anchor history, Faggus was hung for his crimes and Winnie the strawberry mare was shot in the head, probably in what is now our car-park.
We'd like to assure all patrons that The Anchor Inn is a horse-friendly pub and overall we have very few cases of the police shooting customer's horses in the head.
