Why is the Elm Tree Inn at Devizes so called?
Its present name comes from a large elm tree that stood in front of it until 1826. The Elm Tree name is first mentioned in 1818 but the timber framed and jettied building is possibly the corner tenement mentioned in 1512 as being by an elm, when mainly open country lay beyond. The building was an inn in the 16th century and is Mentioned as the Salutation Inn between 1665 and 1681. It is quite possible that this is its earliest name as the Salutation of the Archangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary is one of the earlier inn names. Bibliography: Victoria History of Wiltshire, volume 10. Oxford University Press for the Institute of Historical Research, 1975.
