This impressive coaching inn built around a cobbled courtyard dates in part to 1545. From the eighteenth century it was an important stop on the old York to Carlisle mail coach run. Charles Dickens
and his illustrator friend Hablot K. Browne (Phiz) stayed here at Bowes in the Ancient Unicorn in February 1838 when researching the rumours of the cruel Northern boarding schools where unwanted
(often illegitimate) children were abandoned to an unknown fate.
Five minutes walk away from the pub is Shaw's Academy - now converted into flats. It has a plaque which confirms it as: 'Dotheboys Hall' immortalised by Charles Dickens in
Nicholas Nickleby. The wicked Wackford Squeers is modelled on William Shaw, the former headmaster. In the nearby churchyard are the
headstones of Shaw and a boy called George Ashton Taylor, of Trowbridge, Wiltshire who died suddenly aged 19 years in Mr. Shaws Academy. Dickens later wrote: "I think his ghost put Smike into my mind
on the spot".
Dickens was travelling incognito with documentation presenting himself as an agent for someone who wished their child to attend the Academy. It is said he met a local farmer here who tried to dissuade
him from sending a child to the school. At that time the inn had a reading room which Dickens and Browne used when collating their material. There were 15 such Academies in the immediate area, 2 of them
in Bowes - both now private residences located at the extreme ends of the village. Six months after Nicholas Nickleby was published a large majority of the Northumbria and Yorkshire
schools closed down.
A second literary connection with the pub concerns the Scottish poet David Mallet who in 1760 published the Ballad of Edwin & Emma
about a son and a daughter of rival innkeepers of Bowes - the son of Roger Wrightson fell in love with Martha Roulton to the chagrin of their families. Roger fell ill with fever and died and Martha died a
few days later of a broken heart. They were both buried in the same grave much to Roger's sister's disapproval.
Oak beams, a roaring fire and a handsome portrait of Charles Dickens add to the charm of the cosy bar. There is a wide range of bar snacks on offer and an a la carte menu in the candlelit dining room.
In a letter sent to his wife in January 1838 from the Morritt Arms, Charles Dickens wrote: "We had for breakfast toast, cakes, a Yorkshire pie, a piece of beef about the size and much the shape of my
portmanteau, tea, coffee, ham and eggs and we are now going to look about us " His going to look about us was a reference to his impending fact-finding mission. Dickens and his illustrator friend Hablot
K. Browne (Phiz) were researching into the cruel Yorkshire boarding schools where unwanted (often illegitimate) children were abandoned to an unknown fate. The author used his experience of the winter
coach journey and the material he discovered locally as background for his novel Nicholas Nickleby.
The Morritt Arms was originally called the George & New Inn - and chapter six of the novel ends: "The day dragged on uncomfortably enough, and about six o'clock that night he (Nicholas) and Mr
Squeers, and the little boys, and their united luggage, were all put down together at the George and New Inn, Greta Bridge. The wicked and greedy Wackford Squeers is modelled on William Shaw, the
former headmaster of Shaw's Academy in Bowes 6 miles away (see separate entry for the Ancient Unicorn Inn).
Dating back to the 17th century this solid grey-stone inn was sold as part of an estate to the Morritt family who changed the name. Built on a Roman settlement that is still visible today, the inn
was the second overnight stop for the London/Carlisle mail coach. The Dickens bar has a wonderful happy atmosphere, inspired by the remarkable set of murals around the walls painted by John Gilroy
(of Guinness poster fame) for his close friend Major H. E. Morritt. The work began on the 1st February 1946 and was completed within10 days. When Gilroy and his assistant proudly displayed the walls
of the bar decorated with Dickensian figures, closer inspection revealed them to be caricatures of local people and staff from the hotel.
Such was the influence of Dickens's social reforming through the power of his pen that six months after Nicholas Nickleby was published a large majority of the Yorkshire boarding schools went out of
business.
Copyright T.W. Townsend - the opinions expressed herein are those of the author and any observations were correct at the time of the review.