The Dog and Gun Inn
The Dog & Gun Inn opened soon after the new road, “the high road” which bypassed the vilage, was put through by the Kennet and Amesbury Turnpike Trust in 1840
The Dyke Family
Like many occupations innkeeping tended to stay within the family. Families were usually large and at least one of the numerous children could be expected to follow the profession of his father, helped by younger members. So, it was with the Dyke family who ran the inn for over fifty years.
David Dyke was born in 1799 at Fairford, Gloucestershire son of John and Anne (nee Trinder) Dyke. He was already a widower in 1831 when he married Mary Cozens by licence at Netheravon. His occupation then and at the time of the 1841 census was gamekeeper. By 1851 the family, with five children, were at the Dog and Gun and also running a grocery business. Their eldest son Robert died in 1860 aged 28, his gravestone is in Netheravon churchyard.
Their next son Joseph was working there as a waiter in 1861, but by 1871 David and Mary’s third son George Trinder Dyke had taken over as innkeeper, brewing his own beer. Two of his eleven children were working as barmen in 1901. George Trinder Dyke died in 1903 aged 64 and he has a memorial in Netheravon churchyard.
Ruddles of Manor Farm and Bradford on Avon
The C20th brought great changes to the villages of Salisbury Plain. The huge land sale from the Hicks Beachs to the War Department in 1898 brought in large numbers of troops, horses, and gradually, motor vehicles. Pubs were becoming part of large brewery chains and the Dog & Gun was owned by Ruddles brewery (see Photo).
In 1911 the census return indicates a very different pub to those of earlier years when most of the inhabitants were members of the Dyke family. None of the residents were local in 1911. The licensee until 1914 was James Grist and there were eight boarders and lodgers. These were a chauffeur, two carters for a timber merchant, a jockey, and four stable lads involved in horse racing, two of them Irish.
There has been a long association between Manor Farm and brewing as barley was grown locally for malting. Simeon Ruddle took over the lease of Manor Farm in 1881. From about 1900 the family owned a brewery in Bradford on Avon called S. Ruddle & Sons (the sons being George, and Edward known as Ted). The brewery was sold to Ushers of Trowbridge in 1924, with 12 pubs including the Dog & Gun. Usher’s Brewery also then owned the Fox and Hounds at Netheravon and eventually had over 300 pubs in Wiltshire. The licensees could expect to move around and the pubs were no longer run by local people.
The Witchell family ran the Three Horse Shoes pub (now closed) at Chirton from at least the 1870s to the end of the C19th. In 1911 Edward James (born in 1883) and his wife Fanny were at the Poore’s Arms at Charlton (this was formerly the Red Lion, commonly known as the “Cat”, and officially became the Charlton Cat in 1921). Brought up at the Three Horse Shoes, he became licensee of the Dog and Gun – probably in 1924.
The Witchells were still at the Dog and Gun in 1939 with their two sons Peter James and Edward John (Jack). Their father died in 1958, his address then being New Farm, Netheravon. The brothers Peter and Jack ran the farm, a dairy unit, until it was amalgamated into Manor Farm.
The Dog and Gun helped the village during the 2020-2021 covid lockdowns by delivering food and we hope it continues to thrive.