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A short History of Becket's Inn Glastonbury By Robin Huggins

Perusing the “for sale” section of “Exchange and Mart” we came across an empty Property in the high street of Glastonbury Somerset (No. 43) One Sunday we all drove to Somerset. After climbing over the back gate we were able to view the property, we were very impressed. So much so that we wrote a cheque for £3000 (10% of the asking price) there and then and posted it through the agent's door. Subject to being able to convert the empty property into a licensed restaurant.

The very next day the agent rang to say that our offer had been accepted, and an enquiry to the planning dept. was positive.

How we managed to achieve all the necessary permissions, organise catering equipment, furniture, cutlery, china, glassware, curtains and carpets etc. plus finding a builder to knock the property into shape in a couple of months is a mystery, but achieve it we did.

Short sharp names for restaurants were fashionable in the 1970’s. Watching Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in “Becket” and with a possible Glastonbury connection we decided on the name “Becket’s”. The restaurant opened for business in November 1972.

However, our timing was not great. The whole country was being held to ransom by the coal miners who wanted an increase in pay. This resulted in “blackouts” and ultimately a three day working week to conserve supplies. Consequently, this led to sharp fall in business, and our investment was looking decidedly unstable.

We had a licence to sell alcohol, but as a restaurant this meant only as an accompaniment to meals. This meant if one customer had a meal they could have a glass of wine, but their partner, if they didn’t eat, could not. This was very restricting.

The answer lay in obtaining a “full” licence for which we duly applied. There were 8 pubs in Glastonbury and all were tied to a brewer, mostly Bass and Courage, if we obtained our licence we would be “free of tie” enabling us to sell products from any brewer. Our application was not without opposition from the local LVA (licensed victuallers association), but we were successful.

The major brewers at the time were trying hard to wean the public off traditionally brewed ales, and convert them to processed and highly carbonated lagers and beers. However a few like minded souls launched “CAMRA” (campaign for real ale) to take on this challenge. This campaign was very successful so in our new role as publicans we took to sourcing “real ale” from local breweries. Wadworth’s of Devizes supplied 6X and Eldridge Pope of Dorchester supplied Royal Oak.

With wooden barrels balanced precariously on the bar Becket’s entered a new era.

This project was very successful, we soon had to enlarge the bar area by enclosing the old carriageway at the side. We made tables, benches and the new bartop from wainy edge elm of which there was a surplus (many elm trees died because of Dutch Elm Disease in the 1970s).

We increased our selection of “real ales” to four. Every so often we would include a “guest beer” such as Marston’s Pedigree.

After a few busy years it was time to move on. A direct mailshot to Wadworth’s provided a buyer so in 1981 we moved to Wick Hollow, Glastonbury.