This is the English pub which has kept its own log fire burning continuously for a staggering 172 years – and manages get burn through three transit vans full of logs each month.
The Warren House Inn in Dartmoor, Devon sits 1,425ft above sea and is more than a mile from the nearest farm.
The pub once used to be provide tin miners valuable shelter at any time of the day and has kept the tradition of the fire burning ever since it was first built in 1845.
Even in the summer months, the fire is kept burning and every morning, Peter Parsons’ first job is to shake the ash away and add a few more logs into the fire.
Mr Parsons, 61, and his wife Janet run by pub, which is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. He said he will never stop tending to the fire and said the flame could even be older than initially thought as it was transferred from the grate of the former pub which was across the road.
Landlord Peter Parsons of the Warren House Inn in Postbridge, Devon, alongside the pub’s fire which is said to have been burning for more than a hundred years
The log fire is said to have been running for as long as the pub has been open, which dates back to 1845.
The fire used to help keep tin miners warm when they used to come into the pub more than 100 years ago. Since then the traditional has been kept alive, just like the fire
This image dating back to the mid 1960s shows that the decor of the pub has only changed slight and that the fireplace against the wall remains very much unchanged.
The father-of-two said: ‘The pub as it is standing now dates back to 1845 – and so does the fire.
‘The pub was across the road but it allegedly burned down and this pub was built to serve the miners who worked in the villages nearby.
‘It was here purely to give them a place to gather and eat and likely gamble.
‘Back then the fire was kept burning with peat. It was kept continuously burning all through the day and night so no mater what time they came in they could warm up.
‘As a result, the fire has been burning for as long as this pub has been standing.
‘The miners finished in the early 1900s but the tradition of the fire was kept going.
‘It is very easy to keep going. At night you bank the fire down, put ash on top of it to keep the heat in, and in the morning you shake it off and put a couple of logs in and off it goes. It’s not a roaring fire all year but it’s always there.
‘Because it is always going, the stones around are hot and the grate is hot so that keeps it going and gets it going.’
Locals say that the peat fire has never died out and there are also claims that the then-landlord transferred the fire from the old pub to the new one more than 100 years ago – which would technically make the fire older than 172 years.
Perhaps the pub’s most testing time was back in 1963, where the continual fire helped locals who were cut adrift for 12 weeks and supplies had to be brought in by helicopter.
Mr Parsons, who lives on the premises and has five members of staff, said: ‘The fire was a big part of that because just like for the miners, it gave them a constant source of heat.
‘We’ve been here 29 years and the worst we’ve had is being cut off for three days in the late 1980s or early 1990s.
‘This time of year we make sure we have in plenty of logs – a big bulk of them – just in case we get cut off.’
According to Mr Parsons, he has never come close to letting the fire dwindle to non-existence after leaving it overnight.
He said: ‘Some days are more difficult than others, if the logs are wet or the wind isn’t drawing properly.
Peter Parsons has been the landlord at the Warren House Inn pub in Postbridge for 29 years and said that the fire has never once come close to burning out while he has been in charge
A painting of Harry Warne, a previous landlord, holding a pint and smoking a pipe while sat beside the fire in 1935. The fire at the Warren House Inn pub has not come close to dying out
‘People appreciate knowing it will always be on when they come in.
‘They even come in during summer to check it’s still going – to check I’m still going perhaps – but it always is.
‘Even in those two days a year we can call summer it’s going – even if it’s just chucking a couple of little logs on to keep it smoldering.’
Mr Parsons said he was unaware of how much money the fire cost him to run, but said it must be in ‘thousands’ of pounds each year.
The pub landlord said most of the logs come from nearby suppliers and that local tree surgeons try to donate chunks of wood when they can.
Surrounding areas close to the pub have already seen three flurries of snow this winter, but Mr Parsons said business was ‘very seasonal’ and to do well in the winter was a ‘bonus’.
The pub is totally self sufficient, with electricity coming from two diesel generators, and water from an underground spring.
The pub is totally self sufficient, with electricity coming from two diesel generators, and water from an underground spring, Mr Parsons revealed
The brick exterior of the Warren House Inn pub in Dartmoor back in 1913. The historic pub used to be visited by miners in the early 1900s and they used the establishment as a place to warm themselves up
The brick exterior of the Warren House Inn appears to have been covered up by the 1950s, as this image above shows. The pub is 1,425ft above sea and is more than a mile from the nearest farm
The Warren House Inn pub as it stands now. The pub’s business depends on the season, according to Peter Parsons who helps to run the business