The Boot was in Berry End. The 1765 map and field book lists it as plot T27. It was owned and occupied by Joan Houghton in 1765, described as “House, sign of the Boot, orchard at Lower Berry End”. In 1795 it was owned by “representative of J Gregory”.
The T27 plot seems to be where the little bungalow bizarrely called 84 Berry End now stands. Again, the building has been rebuilt. There is every chance that might have been a Beer House – it’s a long way to walk to the next one!
The 1806 Enclosure Map and the accompanying notes give the name as “The Boot” on plot 138, and that agrees with the 1765 map. Possibly in 1806, it was owned by James Potts.
I have searched the whole British Newspaper Archive and found no mention of the Boot beer house in Eversholt in 2016. After 50 pages of boots in eversholt. There were lots of other Boots in other villages, but no mention of the one in Eversholt. It must have been a very quiet place!
I have seen a suggestion that the name was “The Black Boot”, and it seems very reasonable that the pub sign was a boot and it was a black one, but all the written records I have seen just call it The Boot.
Richard Ireland and Wendy Featherstone, in their splendid Odds and Ends book, suggest the Boot was in Higher Berry End – that’s where Berry End Farm is now. I think that was wrong, the Boot was in Lower Berry End, near Berrystead.
[More to come here.]