A Place Of History And Character
Originally built almost 400 years ago, the Elm Tree is a place of character and history; once upon a time being frequented by smugglers and “wreckers”, it is said to be haunted; it was visited by Barnes Wallis and Churchill during the War and it was even a secret rendezvous for Russian spies during the ‘60s.
In 1746, the Elm Tree became the first pub outside Weymouth to become part of the Devenish estate, when HRH the Prince of Wales leased the pub to John Devenish – and the original deeds can still be found hanging in the bar. Devenish remained the owner until the brewery was sold in the early ‘90s.
Langton Herring get its name from the old English “lang” and “tun” meaning Long Farmstead (that stretched along the shores of the Fleet) and Harencs, a Norman family that settled at Langton during the 13th century.
Extraordinarily, Langton Herring is one of the few “doubly thankful” villages in England – and the only village in Dorset – that did not suffer any fatalities during both World Wars.
SPIES AND BOMBS
At the peak of the Cold War, the pub was at the centre of a Russian spy scandal In the 1960’s. Harry Houghton and his girlfriend Ethel Gee used the Elm Tree to rendezvous with their KGB “controller” in what became know as the Portland Spy Ring.
Houghton would come to the pub and await phone calls from his KGB masters on certain nights, before disappearing to spy on the nuclear submarine fleet based at Portland.
And in WWII, Barnes Wallis stayed at the Elm Tree when he was testing the bouncing bomb on the Fleet – and Churchill is said to have enjoyed a drink (or two) at the bar when secretly visiting to inspect progress.
SMUGGLERS AND GHOSTS
The Dorset coastline – and the Chesil Beach and Fleet in particular – is famous for smuggling and shipwrecks.
Back in the 18th century, smuggling and “wrecking” was so rife on the Chesil Beach that, at one time, over a third of all the men in Langton Herring were locked up behind bars !
Moonfleet, the famous tale of smuggling by J. Meade Falkner, was based on the coast near Langton Herring and a bricked up hole in the old bar is said to be either a smuggler’s escape tunnel or a hiding place for contraband.
There is a tale of a lynching too, strung up from a beam in the old bar. The victim was a fisherman in the 1780s who lied about his catch – and his ghost is said to occasionally appear, particularly when there is a Sou’westerly blowing !
FRIENDS OF THE ELM TREE
The Elm Tree Inn has been the heart of the village of Langton Herring for over 300 years. Regrettably, in December 2023 the Inn finally closed its doors and our community lost its social cohesion as well as all of the rich history that we associate with this rural Inn.
In a village meeting in April 2024, the residents of Langton Herring and the wider community decided that it was important for the Elm Tree Inn to be reopened and one of the options considered was for the community to purchase the Elm Tree Inn. Thus a Steering Committee was established, community support was sought and the challenge to raise the necessary funds to purchase the Elm Tree Inn began. We were supported in this quest by the Plunkett Foundation and are grateful to them for all of their advice and support.
In January 2025 the villagers got together and launched a social media campaign and support in the form of share purchases and donations poured in from across the globe, from places we least expected, as well as those close to us in Dorset. We can’t thank those people enough. In little over six months we raised over £550,000, and on the 23rd May 2025 we managed to purchase the pub and its contents with the help of additional loans, which we want to pay off as soon as possible.
The Elm Tree Inn reopened on 14th July 2025 and we hope that people will continue to support us through share purchases and donations, as we move forward with our new tenants and create a community facility that welcomes everyone.
