Pat and Peter welcome you to their home and guest house
on the beautiful Dorset/Devon border.
We have four rooms: one twin, two double and one family
room with a double bed, bunk beds and space for a third single bed if
required.
We are also able to provide a cot for guests under
three years of age. Although we do not have any single rooms we
operate a single occupancy rate.
All rooms have en-suite facilities, tea/coffee making
equipment, colour TV with remote control, radio alarm clock,
hairdryer, fans for use in hot weather and an iron and ironing board
are available on request.
The Old Black Dog was built in 1916
as a public house/hotel by the builders called Spillers of Chard who
are still trading today. Prior to 1916 The Black Dog Inn
occupied the site, but had to be demolished because the building
became unsafe. As far as we have been able to find out, so far, there
has been a Black Dog Inn on the site since before 1700.
Like all hotels it has had its highs
and lows – in the 70s it was a thriving hotel/pub/restaurant, with
people coming from miles around for the good food and hospitality.
Sadly, in 1994 the then owners decided to close it. The building was
boarded up for some time until it was finally sold to our predecessors
who undertook a massive refurbishment which included creating en-suite
bathrooms for all the rooms, central heating and decoration.
One of the legends is that a local
man who was regularly haunted by a black dog got so fed up with the
ghost that he chased it with a pole into the roof of his house. The
dog escaped but his pole disturbed a pile of coins that fell out of
the roof. The man used the coins to build the inn, calling it the
Black Dog after the ghost. Another tale is that a black dog
haunts Haye Lane (previously called Dog Lane) at dusk. The dog is said
to look quite normal in the distance, but as it gets nearer to you it
becomes enormous, enveloping you and suddenly disappearing. It is said
that some local people will not venture down this lane at night.
More on this story here.
We are three-quarters of a mile from the sea at Lyme
Regis. Lyme Regis is one of the gateway towns of the Jurassic World
Heritage coastline site.
