The long-gone Askers Road House, just outside Bridport on the A35, holds many memories for readers.
It was built in 1931 on the A35 near Askerswell and is famous for the Beatles staying there in 1963.
Once a chic stopover for the well heeled motoring grand tourists of the 1930s it became a key destination for ravers.
The hotel offered camping facilities during and after the Second World War and, in the 1950s, played host to ‘Hamfests’ organised for local amateur radio enthusiasts by Alf Barrett.
In 1963 it hit the headlines during the coldest winter for more than 200 years. Askers Roadhouse was completely cut off for nearly a fortnight.
On Friday January 11, 1963, the Bridport News reported the following:
MOTEL MISERY: The most stupendous task ever undertaken by the Roads and Bridges Department of Dorset County Council has been the clearing of snow from the road between Bridport and Dorchester and the cost will be stupendous too. Askers Roadhouse was completely cut off for nearly a fortnight. They had no newspapers or post but they were not hampered by lack of provisions because preparations had been made for New Year activities, which had, of course, to be cancelled.
Later the same year, Wednesday, November 13, the Beatles were on their way from Portsmouth – where they had been forced to postpone a show the night before when Paul McCartney fell ill with gastric flu – to their concert in Plymouth that night.
News that the band was stopping in west Dorset was kept fairly quiet, but a report in the Bournemouth Echo revealed that the Beatles dined on grilled steak and chips, except Paul who had a lightly poached egg on toast, and afterwards signed autographs for fellow diners and had their photos taken with the owner, a Mr R L Robbins, and his wife.
Askers Road House was consumed by fire soon after an infamous 29-hour rave in the early 1990s.
Its charred remains becoming a local landmark, it was listed on some bus timetables as the ‘Askerswell Ruin’.
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