The Angel Inn is first recorded as a public house in Bow Street in 1787, when a court leet was held there. There are earlier mentions in newspapers of an Angel Inn in Langport, but they do not give an address, and so may refer to a different establishment in North Street. It temporarily changed its name to the Custom House Inn in 1793 when the local Excise Office relocated to the building, but later reverted to its original name.
The Langport tithe map from 1840 identifies ‘The Angel Inn, stables, yard and garden’ as occupying Field 42, in Bow Street. The owner is recorded as William Norman, and the occupier as Thomas Vigar. Thomas Vigar and his wife Sarah are listed as resident there in the 1841 census, but Thomas died the following year. It is possible that his widow, Sarah, continued to run the pub on her own, but five years later her life changed. She got married to Edgar Robbins, who had been the publican at the Dolphin Inn, just down the road from the Angel. It seems that he and Sarah then ran The Angel together, but two years later, in 1849, Edgar was declared bankrupt. He and Sarah moved away, and Edgar became a policeman.
A preliminary list of publicans is given below. One of the most notable was Richard Edward (‘Eddie’) Purchase, who ran The Angel for nearly 30 years. He was born in Drayton, where his father Henry was a carpenter. For a time his brother Samuel ran the Dolphin Hotel. Eddie was the Bandmaster of the Langport Town Band, a town Councillor, and involved in many community activities. His funeral on 10 September 1945 was attended by many representatives of local organisations.
From time to time the Angel has been associated with poor behaviour by its customers. One such event was reported in the Langport & Somerton Herald of 22 December 1855.
“A most disgusting feat was performed on Monday last, at the Angel Inn, by a man of Aller. He ate the entire of a sheep’s head raw, and offered afterwards to eat the henge etc in the same state if anyone would give it him.” (‘Henge’ or ‘hange’ refers to internal organs such as the heart, liver and lungs.)
Some incidents ended up in the magistrates’ court. In 1903 the local newspaper reported that John Crossman, a gardener from High Ham, had left his cart outside the Angel Inn in Bow Street for an unreasonably long time, obstructing the road. The local bobby, PC Edwards, had ‘kept the defendant’s cart under observation for 35 minutes, at the end of which time defendant came out of the Inn.’ Mr Crossman was fined.
More recently, in 1980, publican Mrs Joan Lamb had to defend the Angel against local residents complaining about the noise caused by dances which took place in the skittle alley at the back of the pub. A petition of support was presented from other residents who had no objection to the noise levels. In this case Somerton magistrates granted a renewal of Mrs Lamb’s dance licence on the grounds that Mrs Lamb had taken steps to reduce the noise, and that the dances were a facility ‘that Langport could ill afford to do without’.
Joan Lamb was the licensee of the Angel for about 20 years, from 1966 until 1986, when the pub was put up for sale. It was during her tenure, in the early 1980s, that the pub changed its name from The Angel Inn to The Old Custom House Inn. It remained The Old Custom House Inn until 2007, when it was bought by the Langport Church Community Trust. It ceased to operate as a public house, changed its name back to The Angel, and now operates as a café and community space.
INNKEEPERS/PUBLICANS OF THE ANGEL INN/OLD CUSTOM HOUSE INN
Thomas Vigar 1840-
Edgar Robbins 1847-
Mrs Henrietta Baulch 1861-
Mrs Ann Hunt 1866-
John Turner 1872-
William Stanbury 1886-
Edward Purchase 1911-
L J Chane 1947-
Mrs Joan Lamb 1966-86
Paul Keyworth-Wright 1996-
Keith Berrington 1999-
Note. This list is an incomplete work in progress. Please contact us if you know of any additions or corrections.
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