Pub history · No.16 of 18 · Coalport & Jackfield
The Boat Inn, Jackfield
c.1840 as a pub | Earlier origins claimed
The Boat belongs to an age when the River Severn wasn't the view from the beer garden.
It was the road.
Our original working date of 1740 followed published CAMRA information, but local research shared with us since publication raises questions about it. The evidence now points to the present pub dating from around 1840 — so c.1840 is our working date, while we keep investigating the claim of earlier origins.
Whenever it opened, this was a pub built around the river, when boatmen and barge crews were moving people, raw materials and finished goods along the Severn.
By the 1881 census, widow Mary Cleeton was running the Boat.
Look at the occupations of the men living around it and old Jackfield suddenly comes alive: Barge Waterman. Brickmaker. Clay Miner.
This was their pub.
Even the building records its own growth. Changes in the brickwork reveal where earlier cottages were altered and joined as the pub expanded.
And then there's the Devil
According to an old Jackfield tale, a stranger once joined locals for a game of cards at the Boat.
Someone dropped a card.
He bent beneath the table to retrieve it.
And noticed that the stranger didn't have a human foot.
He had a cloven hoof.
The mysterious player was supposedly the Devil himself, who disappeared from the pub amid a sudden violent gust of wind.
Can we prove it? Absolutely not.
Would we leave it out? Absolutely not.
How we know this date
- TraditionOur original working date of 1740 followed published CAMRA information, which describes the Boat Inn as dating from 1740. However, further local research shared with us since publication raises questions about that date.Source: CAMRA published information
- DocumentedThe present pub is reportedly absent from the 1838 tithe map but appears by the time of the 1841 census, suggesting the present Boat Inn may date from around 1840.Source: 1838 tithe map and 1841 census — local research shared with us
- DocumentedThere is an earlier 1831 burial reference to George Crumpton “of the Boat”. However, the Crumpton family were ferrymen, so this may refer to a boat or ferry rather than a public house.Source: 1831 burial reference
- DocumentedBy the 1881 census the Boat was being run by widow Mary Cleeton, surrounded by neighbours listed as barge watermen, brickmakers and clay miners.Source: 1881 census
- TraditionFor now we are therefore treating c.1840 as the better-supported working date for the pub, while continuing to investigate the claim of earlier origins.
This is a working date. If you have a document or photograph that changes it, we'd genuinely like to see it.
And noticed that the stranger didn't have a human foot. He had a cloven hoof.
Then
Now
The Boat Inn — Jackfield · Coalport & Jackfield
Can you help with The Boat Inn, Jackfield?
We're still researching this pub. Old photographs, licences, newspaper cuttings, brewery documents or family memories all help — and if you have evidence that changes our date, we'd genuinely like to see it.
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