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News
Car crashes into 15th century pub, toppling pillar
A driver has crashed into a historic pub in Taunton, Somerset, causing the 600-year-old establishment to shake to the rafters.
Drinkers inside The Langport Arms Hotel described hearing a loud bang and feeling the pub “shake” when a grey Peugeot crashed into its entrance on Saturday 1 June.
One of the exterior stone pillars toppled onto the car following the collision, which severely damaged the pub’s portico.
The driver received medical treatment at the scene and was taken to hospital but is said to have suffered no major injury from the event.
Following the crash, police closed off Bow Street, upon which the historic pub sits, and fire crews stepped in to prop up the porch roof of the pub using steel bars.
“We obviously had to close the pub and now it’s just staff inside,” a pub employee named Tom, told news outlets. “We’re not sure what’s happening next. The frontage of the balcony isn’t safe.”
However, the pub’s management has since confirmed that the establishment remains open, despite its “front entrance being blocked due to structural damage.”
A statement on the pub’s Facebook page thanked the emergency services, as well as its own employees for “acting so promptly during this shocking and trying time.”
The Langport Arms Hotel was originally built as a private residence in 1420, but was converted to an inn in the 16th Century, during which time it was known as The Swan. It has carried its current name since the 1700s. Accommodation above the pub includes 10 bedrooms starting from £80 for a double room, and is “pet-friendly”, dependent on prior arrangement.
The venue also offers wedding receptions, with space for more than 100 guests, and the restaurant’s popular carvery menu is available as a takeaway as well as dine-in option.
Although reviewers on Trip Advisor have praised the pub’s “quirky” furniture and ambience, other guests have said that the venue “needs money spent on it”, with one critic saying it looked like it “hadn’t been decorated for 40 years”.