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ACCORDING to an old Hampshire saying, anyone who was the worse for wear after spending too long in the pub was said to be "So drunk, he must have been to Romsey''.

There were once more than 80 public houses and in the early part of the last century the town had one inn for every 141 people - nearly twice the national average.

Book collector and historian Dave Goddard has helped Hampshire Heritage to track down the background to four photographs of Romsey pubs in the Daily Echo archives.

The Woolpack, which once stood in Middlebridge Street, could trace its roots back as far as the 16th century and for many years, during the 1800s, a family named Holloway, who were also farmers and wheelwrights, brewed beer on the property.

The photograph taken in the early part of the last century shows a low-set building with a massive central chimney stack and undulating roof of old clay tiles.

Despite offering customers the choice of a bar or a tearoom, the Woolpack, which had stabling for 20 horses together with a yard big enough for 60 or 70 carts, lost its licence in 1911 and three years later the site was bought by the Romsey Corporation.

Just 130 yards away stood the Three Tuns, which continues to welcome customers up to the present day.

This is another old house, reputed to have been built in the first half of the 17th century and its distinctive bow window was a characteristic of many local pubs.

It is said that in 1785 the then licensee, William Bach, was held up by a highwayman and was so frightened he was forced to give up the pub and then, throughout the 19th century, the Three Tuns was run by farmers who also sold milk as well as beer.

The Sawyers Arms in The Hundred had also been known as the Catherine Wheel, the trade sign which was the symbol of timber dealers, and also because the pub was popular with carpenters and joiners from the area.

In the early 1900s the area, now known as the Harrage, behind the Sawyers Arms was regularly used as a fairground.

The authorities wanted to close it down in 1911 because it was said the Sawyers Arms was close to the Sceptre, the King's Head and the Bishop Blaize, but the pub remained open until 1960.

The Lansdowne Arms that once stood in Church Street was built in 1829 on the site of a grand Tudor house, destroyed by fire three years earlier, which had belonged to Sir William Petty, a wealthy wool merchant who was the ancestor of the Marquis of Lansdowne.

The licence for the Lansdowne Arms was withdrawn in 1911 when the landlord, an elderly widow of an old tenant, was awarded £42 10s (£42.50) in compensation.

10:00am Friday 1st February 2008

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