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The fireplace where the fire never goes out at the legendary Saltersgate Inn on the Pickering to Whitby road

It is very sad that the famous Saltersgate Inn between Pickering and Whitby is to cease trading, one probability being that the premises will be turned into holiday flats.

For years, it has stood like a beacon on that bleak moorland road, always being a place of refuge even in the worst of weather. I have called many times, being particularly fascinated by the mystery and legend that surrounds it.

Built in 1648 and originally called The Waggon and Horses, it is the home of a turf or peat fire which is said never to have gone out since 1800 and it is that fire which forms the basis of an enduring legend.

The inn's isolated location profited from the past trade in smuggled salt. In the 17th and 18th centuries, fishermen from Whitby and Robin Hood's Bay would trek to the Waggon and Horses by using the famous Salt Road that led from those ports across the moors to the inn.

Salt was essential if the fish was to be preserved over long journeys but it was very heavily taxed. The fishermen could barely afford the excessive rates and so a brisk trade in salt smuggling developed.

The remote inn became a focal point with several moorland tracks meeting here and so there were constant processions of horses and carts bearing fish to be salted.

They travelled at night so the darkness would shelter them.

The inn's size and remote location made it ideal to store the salt. Tons of it were carried here and hidden in the cellars, but cupboards around the inn were also used for storage. There were salt boxes too, like small troughs. These were installed in the walls near the fireplace, the fire being necessary to maintain the heat so the salt was kept dry to enable it to run smoothly.

The stout beams of the cellar bore fishhooks from which to hang the awaiting fish. Undoubtedly, it was a major operation.

Not surprisingly, the authorities learned about all this illegal activity at the Waggon and Horses, and one night it led to a fierce battle between some smugglers and an excise man. In the south facing wall of the inn there is a small window, and it was here that a light was kept burning if excisemen were in the vicinity. The absence of a light meant it was safe for the salting to continue.

The story is that a party of fishermen trekked across the moors one night in 1800 or thereabouts. They had cart loads of fish to be salted as they made their way to the Waggon and Horses, but a shock lay in store. An un-named exciseman, who had spent months trying to catch the smugglers, was lying in wait. He had managed to conceal himself in the darkness and waited outside the inn for the fishermen to arrive. There was no warning light that night - the fishermen thought they were safe.

The exciseman waited until all the fishermen and their precious loads were inside and concealed in the cellar as the salting process got underway. He was seeking firm evidence before he could prosecute the smugglers.

Allowing them time to get the process well established, and also to give them a false sense of security, he waited until he felt the time was right, and then crept in and made his way into the cellar. After months of investigation, he had finally caught the smugglers in the act.

But he was never to leave the inn alive.

A fierce battle ensued with the unfortunate exciseman being killed. It has never been established whether his death was accidental or deliberate, but there is no doubt he died that night. The perpetrators knew the penalty for murder - it was death by hanging, the body usually being gibbeted afterwards.

They resolved to conceal the murder but they had to dispose of the body in a place it would never be found. After some deliberation, they came up with the idea of burying the fellow beneath the hearth of the inn, and if the turf fire should never be allowed to go out, the body would remain hidden.

And so the deed was done. Very soon afterwards, a new hearth was installed.

That was in 1800 when the new fittings were installed by Dobsons of Pickering.

The excessive tax on salt continued until 1825, but that fire has burned ever since that dreadful night at Saltersgate. When the smuggling ceased and the roads improved, the Waggon and Horses became a famous coaching inn, servicing the Neptune and Royal Mail coaches.

Now, of course, the famous fire has been extinguished and if alterations are undertaken at the former inn, I wonder what they will find under that fireplace?

12:22pm Thursday 1st November 2007

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