The Olde Whyte Swanne 45 Eastgate Louth

Image: © Jo and Steve Turner Taken: 29 May 2011

Grade II Listed public house that claims to be 'founded 1612' and the oldest pub in Louth although as late as 1953 it was called just 'The White Swan'. The age of the pub seems to be substantiated as it appears to be referred to in an Archdeacon's visit in 1612 as the "sign of the swan". At this time the leading innkeepers where named Price, Boddington and Kilborne. In 1861 the Landlord was John Thorpe, in 1891 Joseph Ryley and by 1901 it was Henry Brown. Brian Best (‘Besty behind the bar’) ran the pub from 1981 to 1986 with his wife Mary. The current (2013) proprietor is listed as D Grantham. In 1869 presumably at the end of John Thorpe's tenure an advert informs us that the old well accustomed Pub known as the White Swan Inn was to let. It had its own brewery at the back, a large club room, good stabling and a lock-up coach house. The pub is reputedly haunted and they used to stop people sitting in the seat right next to the fireplace, beneath the window, saying that was the ghost’s seat.

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