The Railway Inn/The Dust Hole, Salisbury

Image: © David Dixon Taken: 15 Jul 2017

A pub with two names! The Railway Inn, on Tollgate Road, opened in 1847, immediately opposite the site of Salisbury’s first Railway station. Less than ten years later however, the station was moved across town, to its present location which left the Railway Inn to serve as an ordinary pub for the railwaymen and others who worked the large Milford Goods Yard. The nickname “The Dusthole” probably arose because of the dust created from the coal drops along the north side of Blakey Road where the Salisbury coal merchants used to store their coal, after unloading it from the railway wagons. Also, the cattle drovers, used to head along this road raising a lot of dust, until it was finally surfaced with tarmac. Add that the dusty clothing of the patrons and the black smoke from the old steam locos and you can see why it got its nickname. After a few years it was never called anything else but “The Dusthole” and its official name sank into obscurity. Finally, in 1976 the pubs brewers had “The Dusthole” registered as a second official name and it became the first pub in England to have two names (http://www.milfordstreetbridgeproject.org.uk/content/places/pubs/the-railway-innthe-dusthole-the-pub-with-two-names The Milford Street Bridge Project).

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