The Blue Boar - Trust Annual Report 1969
The Blue Boar Inn
This old inn has been derelict for some time. Just as work was about to begin on the restoration some years ago, a huge mobile crane crashed into the upper floor and made the task even more difficult. Members of the Trust will be glad to learn that work is to begin shortly and that the missing timbers were taken away, stored, and will be used again.
The earliest known record relates how the Blue Boar was used for a harvest home supper in the latter part of the 17th century, but the building was very much older than that and the structural method shows that it went back to the 14th century. Its position marked the junction of two important roads and was ready to welcome travellers entering this part of Winchester.
This was an early type of hall building which had galleries leading off at two levels. The ground floor had two shop windows or openings where bread and liquor could be dispensed to passing travellers.
The drawing by Garrick Palmer shows how the building will look when it is restored. Some new additions will be made at the back, but the lines of the restored building will be unchanged and the site will remain the same as for hundreds of years.