Haunted Hosts

The Brocket Arms occupies a Grade II listed building (Historic England list entry 1101091) in the small Hertfordshire village of Ayot St Lawrence. The timber-framed structure dates to the early sixteenth century according to Historic England's official assessment, though local tradition places its origins in the fourteenth century, linking it to the Norman church of St Lawrence that stands in ruins directly opposite. The building's earliest function was as monastic quarters serving the adjacent church. Following the Reformation, it transitioned to secular use and became a licensed premises. The earliest recorded licence dates to 1694, when it was held by Joseph Ewer under the name The Three Horseshoes. That name persisted for over two centuries. The Brocket family connection runs deep. Sir John Brocket purchased the manors of Holmes and Ayot St Lawrence in July 1543. The family seat, Brocket Hall, sits roughly five miles away near Lemsford. The pub sign still displays the Brocket crest and its Latin motto, 'Felis demulcta mitis' ('A stroked cat is gentle'). The building was renamed The Brocket Arms around 1937. The pub passed through several brewery hands: Wrights of Walkern held the lease until 1924, when Simpson's of Baldock took over. Greene King acquired Simpson's in 1954, and the pub eventually became a free house. A major refurbishment in 1979 under landlord Toby Wingfield-Digby added handpumps and a restaurant. Six ensuite bedrooms followed in the 1990s. George Bernard Shaw lived barely 200 yards away at Shaw's Corner from 1906 until his death in 1950. The pub was his local, though he would have known it as The Three Horseshoes. The building retains its medieval character: exposed timber framing with brick nogging, an old tile roof, and a large seventeenth-century inglenook fireplace inside.