Lower Lode Inn, Forthampton Ferry, nr Tewkesbury GL19 4RE

The 15^th century Lower Lode Inn is a brick built inn on the eastern banks of the River Severn. The pub is only about one mile to the west of Tewkesbury but involves a five mile journey to get there by road. The Severn was once fordable at this point and it is said that the river was crossed by troops fleeing the Battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. A ferry was established between Lower and Upper Lode in the late 19^th century but the service was eventually withdrawn. The ferry link was restored in the mid 1990’s but in 2000 the Environment Agency decreed that the mooring pontoon at the Lower Lode Inn was a hazard and posed a flood risk. The structure was taken down in March 2001.

In December 1986 the 15^th century Lower Lode Inn was sold to a Surrey couple, David and Joan Staplin, for £195,000

The booklet ‘Gloucestershire Inns’, published in 1924 stated that: “The Lower Lode Hotel stands as a visible link binding the centuries together. A rather gruesome feature of the surroundings are several yew trees which formerly served as gallows. The original inn has been swallowed up in subsequent alterations and enlargements. It is a favourite for salmon fishers, of whom several hundred at a time in season have been known to assemble here.”

The Lower Lode Inn was severely flooded in the Great Gloucestershire Flood of July 2007. Four feet of floodwater gushed in on July 21^st. The kitchen was devastated and all the food stock was lost as water swamped the freezers. At the time of the flood 300 bikers had been due to visit the pub for a rally. When the waters receded motorcycle enthusiasts helped landlady Samantha Snape clean the pub, shifting the mud and slime from the function room and the bar areas. Biker Phyl Weekes, a member of the Toads and Dogs Ends club in Bristol said at the time: “We’ll be here, on and off, for the next two or three weeks until the pub is ready to open. Bikers club together, no matter what.”

When the Lower Lode Inn finally reopened in September 2007 a charity music night was held at the pub. Some of the money raised was given to the landlord of the Red Lion in Wainlodes and to Samantha at the Lower Lode so that the landlords “could go away for a couple of nights and chill out.”