Photograph of Clarendon Arms, Hook

An interesting view of The Old Clarendon Arms, Hook near Wootton Bassett with several bystanders in the photograph. The beer house is shown on the far left of the photograph, one in a row of three thatched cottages (no's 31 - 33). It was a one roomed premises with a sawdust floor where the owner brewed and sold his own beer. In 2024 hops could still be seen growing in the vicinity.

The cottage on the far right of the photograph was a bakery from which bread was delivered around the village by donkey and cart. The entrance to the cottages was known as 'The Piece' where a well was sited. The bystanders in the photograph may well have come to draw water. Villagers also walked across The Piece to reach further dwellings in the fields beyond, some 7 or 8 cottages that no longer exist.

The beer house appears to have closed down in the 1920s when the Government put a stop to houses being used as drinking places that didn't sell sufficient beer to merit their status. Around this time the cottages had fallen into disrepair and were sold by the White family of Midgehall to Ernest Hatter of Hook and his wife Beatrice Mary (Beatie) who had previously worked as a maid for the Whites.

In 1953, having lost her husband, Beatie moved to a new bungalow in Hook, and Ruby and her husband John Drury took up residence in the former cottages, deciding to adopt the name of the old inn, modernising the building and calling it Clarendon House.

The name Clarendon most probably commemorates the famous Wiltshire statesman Edward Hyde 1st Earl Clarendon whose father hailed from Purton.