This page is one of several pages which are based on articles in our book entitled Royal Leamington Spa, A History in 100 Buildings which was published in 2018 and is no longer in print.
Thomas Abbots and Benjamin Satchwell were villagers living in Leamington Priors south of the River Leam during the 1700’s. They were good friends and very influential in the development of Leamington as a thriving spa town.
Whereas Satchwell lived in a thatched cottage in what is now New Street and acted as postmaster, Abbots owned and lived in Black Dog Inn. The Black Dog was one of just two alehouses in the original village of Leamington Priors. The other being the Bowling Green Inn.
However, Satchwell often held court at the Black Dog, doubtless wearing the straw hat shown in the drawing most of us have seen. He doffed his hat only to visitors, saying,
“Some go to The Dog do go to drink
But I go there to snooze and think,
To hear folks tell, o’er cup of ale
How Leamington does wag its tail
The Black Dog Inn ( or “Dog” as it was also known) stood on the south side of the London Road, and about 30-40 yards from the east corner of Clemens Street. It was said to date from 1529 although this has been difficult to prove.
The first corroborated reference for this inn is in 1776, when William Abbotts was named as the landlord. In his account of ‘The History of Royal Leamington Spa’ [1887-89], George Morley informs us that, “William Abbotts was born in 1736 at Long Itchington. Orphaned at an early age he was adopted by his uncle, a gamekeeper at Birdingbury, who left him heir to a small property at Leamington Priors, situated on the London Road and containing an old roadside inn”. Morley described Abbotts as, “A comparatively wealthy native, a publican, farmer and a churchwarden of All Saints”. A map of the area produced in 1783 shows the Dog Inn on what is now the High Street and Abbots Field and cottage on what is now Bath Street
The Dog Inn is number 27 on this map of 1783
Shortly after his uncle died, Abbotts relocated to Leamington in to takeover occupancy of the Black Dog, “where he and his patrons were wont to sit of an evening enjoying ‘potations pottle deep’ [ales in measures equal to four pints – Ed] and discussing the latest news brought down by coach”.
In ‘Glimpses of Our Local Past’ (1895), J.C. Manning described the premises thus: “The Dog Inn must have been a curious little structure when William Abbotts first took possession of it somewhere about the year 1776. It was originally a small thatched alehouse, standing alone by the roadside, with a good sized garden and apple orchard in the rear; in front, a flower garden reaching to the gravelled footpath; a hedge and ditch on the right hand, leading continuously up the Warwick Road to the west and a hedge and ditch on the left hand leading continuously to the east towards Radford ….with a lattice on each side of a low-pitched door, and two small casements above, indicating a tiny dormitory to each.”
Two years after Abbotts came to the Dog he changed the aspect of the inn by substituting, for lattice and thatch, two smart bow windows and tile roofing, cutting down the hedge in front and clearing away the little garden, defining the frontage by placing three posts with loop-chains before each window. The Dog now began to see itself as a competitor for the more aristocratic Bowling Green and it began to encourage the favours of the growing number of visitors to the village.
As mentioned previously, The Dog was the village alehouse in which Ben Satchwell used to hold high court as the ‘oracular authority’ on all local questions. Here, of an evening, in a cosy chimney corner of the quaint little kitchen, Benjamin would sit, puffing a cloud of smoke from behind a yard of clay, and moistening its dryness from a can of Will Abbotts’ best home brewed ale. At the time Abbotts entered upon the Dog, Satchwell was thus the stay and prop of the humble little inn as its most influential frequenter.
Abbotts and Satchwell became good friends and in January 1784, when out walking together on the former’s land (now Bath Street) they discovered a spring of saline water; Abbotts would erect the first bathhouse in Leamington Priors which, according to J. C. Manning, was commenced in 1784 and opened in 1787. In 1790, Abbotts began building the New Inn in Lillington Lane [corner Spencer and Bath Streets] upon part of the freehold land left to him by his uncle and in 1793 he took possession. At this point the ‘Dog’ was acquired by Thomas Sinker who re-christened it Sinker’s Boarding House; according to George Morley’s 1887-89 account, it would subsequently be renamed the Greyhound.
In 1812, Sinker advertised his business for sale and it was sold to Michael Copps the following year. Soon afterwards Copps purchased the adjacent Fisher’s Balcony Boarding House (which briefly became the Oxford Boarding House/Hotel) and by 1816 both premises had been renamed the Copps’ Royal Hotel. Manning also informs us that by 1816 there was a public coffee-room at the hotel which “was the identical old Dog Inn itself, at the east end of the hotel buildings, set apart for that special purpose”.
The Black Dog was probably one of the buildings forming Copps’ Royal Hotel to the left
Also according to J. C. Manning, “The old ‘Dog’ premises were standing in 1842 when the palatial hotel was closed and formed an annexe to the hotel building.” This claim appears to be reinforced by Richard Hopper in his 1842 account, when he states, “From this period [1813] the hotel which, for a considerable period of time went by the name of Copps’ Hotel, was much enlarged and improved. The house which was first occupied by Abbotts, and then by Sinker, retains much of its original form.
Copps’ Royal Hotel and with it all trace of The Dog, was demolished in May 1847 to build the bridge that would facilitate the extension of the railway line to Rugby.
Michael Pearson
Acknowledgements to “Pubs of Royal Leamington Spa”, “History of Royal Leamington Spa” by George Morley and J C Manning “Glimpses of Local Past”