This page is dedicated to Josie,
the erstwhile landlady of the Burnmoor Inn, Boot.

Big Josie of Boot

Behind the bar was Big Josie.  Big, blond and Austrian. A statuesque woman who, in her day, must have been quite a looker.  However that day had been quite a few years gone! We ordered five different beers and immediately got the Big Josie treatment.  "Achh", she said in her strong accent as she handed over the drinks, "You vill all be varting in different directions!" and then insisted in pushing Austrian sex magazines into our hands.

Shortly afterwards, one of the Blackpuddlians asked her if she had burned her bra (remember this was at the heyday of women's lib).  "Brrra?!" She snorted.  "Brrra?   Four childer hav I suckled and never once hav I vorn a brra."  At which juncture she whipped up her top to prove her point(s) and two whopping great bazoomers phelumphed out!

Later we were introduced to her husband, a wiry little man, whom she variously called "Crab Arse" or "Shag Nasty".  Or maybe his name was something like Krabahse Djagnhazsi?  She then announced that she was going to go upstairs to slip into something more comfortable.  When she came down she was wearing nothing but a pair of knickers and a pink baby doll nightdress, the sides of which were split almost up to her armpits.  She proceeded to go around the room sitting on any available lap.  Fortunately I was well out of reach behind a table.  At this time, in the best tradition of investigators, we made an excuse and left.

The drive back is a good example of why the drink-driving laws were so necessary.  I have this vague recollection of John sitting behind the driving wheel and possibly working some of the pedals, whilst Pete was in the back steering (with his feet??).  I think I might have been working the clutch pedal whilst Ian changed gear.  Dave couldn't drive so was excused from this pantomime!  All a bit like the classic story of an insurance company: Managing Director has hands on wheel, Marketing Director has his foot on the accelerator which is rammed to the floor;  the Finance Director is heaving on the handbrake whilst the Actuary is screaming directions from a map he has just made by looking out the back window.

I only saw Big Josie once more- Graham hadn't been able to join us on the first trip and persuaded me that it would be a good idea to camp at Boot and experience the full evening.  Routine pretty much as before only this time the baby doll nightdress was changed for a string vest!  Well, the weather had warmed up!

However, on several occasions over the years I have met people in all sorts of places and we would get talking.  On discovering I lived in the Lake District they would say something like "I had a holiday up there once.  We went into this pub and you'll never believe what the bar lady did".  "Big Josie?"  I would ask.  "Oh, do you know her?" they would reply.

The last we heard was one of those messages passed down the trenches.  Big Josie was deceased.  Or was it diseased?  Neither would be a surprise but life in Boot would never be the same again.

Pretty tame stuff by today's standards but, for those times, a novel way to cut a living in a small pub in a tiny village in the back of beyond.

Don, 19th October 2006

I tried to keep the crew's spirits up by telling them the story of Josie who used to run the Burnmoor Inn and was voted rudest landlady in Britain on a number of occasion.  Josie came from Austria and had an accented turn of phrase that would have done justice to any lower ranks mess on the Eastern Front.  Her own front, unencumbered by brassiere and rather slumped for the lack of it, used to put in a pale appearance over the bar whenever she became bored with the pub trade, had consumed the requisite volume of gin, or when a suitable wager had been offered.

My own first experience of Josie's delights was on a bleak Saturday in March when unfarmable weather had driven Tom Purdham and myself to join a group of his pals in the Burnmoor for an afternoon of debate about the current state of agricultural policy and the green pound.  Several pints of debate later (and, as the new boy, having already had my initiation into the dubious charms of a pair of warm, pale, cushions round the ears) the door opened and out of the storm trooped a very proper family of dad, mum and two point four neatly dressed children.  Dad's politely requested order was for one Coca Cola, one lemonade and two point four orange juices.  There was a terrible silence.  Josie didn't even look up.  "You do reelise that sis is a figgin pub?" Dad suddenly reelised that the storm was more appealing.  With a clatter they were gone."

Don, 2nd September 2007

Hubby George on Li'l Ratty

I did write to Eric Robson to invite him to add to our Big Josie page but, sadly, without response.  However I have picked up a snippet of information about her husband.  Out of curiosity I put "Big Josie Boot Burnmoor" into Google and found the following item dated 19th January 2007 on a shooter's web site:

You'll probably know George then. He's a driver on the Ratty - skinny chap with big beard, used to be married to Josie who ran the Burnmoor pub in Boot.

Sadly there was no follow up.  However I did find the following on an Angling website dated 6th December 2006:

The BOOT INN - Memories - remember the polish refugee who used to run it and do impromptu strips behind the bar - hillarious but truly revolting ( or was that the next pub up the valley, Burnmoor Inn?)

Again, no follow up.

Don, 3rd November 2007

Overheard on a Train

Ian, who was with us on the original visit to the Burnmoor Inn, adds:

I was on a train once- if my memory serves me correctly I was returning from a mate's stag do in Yorkshire in 1977 and I had a stonking hangover- and there were a couple of blokes in the same carriage, one of whom started talking about visiting the Burnmoor Inn. I can't remember if he mentioned the pub or Josie by name, but it was obvious who he was talking about and the visit had clearly left a lasting impression!

Ian, 8th November 2007

Big Josie and the Broken Ribs

Bryan also met Big Josie.

In the early 70's we had just discovered the Lakes and in particular the quite and peaceful Eskdale valley. Myself, my wife-to-be and two friends were spending a week at a holiday cottage at Hollins Farm on the edge of the village of Boot.

After our first day's walking we decided to go for a pint at the local pub in the village - the Burnmoor Inn. We ordered the drinks from the landlady. Whilst pulling the pint she started a dialogue with a local farmer stood at the bar about the fact that she had apparently cracked a couple of ribs. As we were about to sit down she pulled up the lower portion of her blouse to show him her bandages.

We sat down, but before we could even discuss what had just happened we heard her say "it's bandaged all the way up" at which point the blouse came off to reveal a rather large pair which had clearly suffered over the years (she looked to be in her late 40's) from the effects of gravity and no bra! They were slumped over a midriff that was bandaged from her waist. It was not a pretty sight!

This was the early 70's. Although we had been through the "flower power" era, the real world of the North of England was still a very 'proper' one, so to see someone displaying any bare flesh in public was quite a shock. To witness someone walk around a pub topless was absolutely unbelievable. To a young man this would be regarded as a dream come true but it would be a very strange dream!

After a quarter of an hour of "'displaying her wares" she disappeared and we began to think that it might now be safe to get another round but just as we were about to go up to the bar we heard the deep, foreign voice of Josie (as we now knew her) coming down the stairs. She re-appeared wearing a baby doll nightie and very little else - including the bandages which now miraculously had disappeared!  

This was most definitely not something that dreams are made of! We quickly finished our drinks and left. It was also quite embarrassing for the two young ladies with us so we drank in the Woolpack for the rest of the week in deference to their sensibilities (and ours, it has to be said!)

Bryan, 13th November 2007

Raped by the Nazis

The Bristol Exploration Group website conatins a report of a visit to Eskdale in 1971 of which the following is an extract.

We were meant to be there at midnight but it was 1.20 a.m. when we arrived.  The Burnmoor Inn was still open and we all piled in demanding ale.  That is a pub with a difference!  Jose, the landlady is quite a character and she runs the place with her husband and Eric the barman.  We sat in a corner of the room for mutual protection against her approaches, where we cringed and supped our ale.  Steve had an interesting experience, but I can't go into details because Alfie wouldn't print them.  We staggered out at about half past three and unfurled our sleeping bags in some dilapidated cottages across the street.

On the Saturday, we again visited the pub for morning drinkies, where we found Jose and Eric crawling around on the floor looking for his false teeth.  

We decided to visit a different pub for the evening's refreshment. We accordingly snuck off and, after an enjoyable time, went back to the Burnmore Inn.  Jose was furious, accusing us of only coming back when the other pubs were shut (which was true.) However, she soon calmed down and we started supping again. There was a group of Yorkshire lads in the room as well and we soon had a good singing match going. Jose became quite upset because nobody was taking any notice of her, so we sang "Edelweiss" all the way through, upon which she broke down and told us how she had been raped by the Nazis during the war.  

The singing then continued until about 4 a.m., when we began to stagger off to bed.  Bob was highly slewed and kept apologising for bringing us to such a terrible place.  We told him to shut up and that we were enjoying it immensely.  

For the full report see Eskdale 1971.

And Did Those Feet?

Steve K, from whom we first learned of Big Josie and who now lives in Luxembourg says:

As for Josie, I in fact only saw her on (I think) two occasions and the string vest rings a bell. Most of the stories I heard about her were from a mate who spent a lot more time than I did at Sellafield, but I can't ask him as he unfortunately died very young.

He told me about evenings when Josie went round the bar sitting on guys' knees and fondling their genitalia and inviting other guys to fondle her at the same time - a kind of mass grope-in. There was some weird bit about some of the guys putting their feet up her vest (at her invitation of course!).

Roll Up, Roll Up, Come and see the Fat Girl

Steve G, an exiled Lancastrian now in Northampton, reports:

We also had the occasion to "meet" Big Josie c 1970/71. We had been walking on Scafell and called in to the Burnmoor for a pint or two afterwards!  As students we were all into Folk Music at the time and my friend played a concertina.  I recall we sat in a little cubby hole/room near the front door and proceeded to sing our repertoire of songs including some humerous Lancashire songs such as the Rawtenstall Annual Fayre. Having encountered Big Josie as we bought our pints we thought the words of the song would be appropriate for her:

Oh, roll up, roll up, come and see the fat girl,
Forty stone o' loveliness and evr'y bit's her own.
Ee she were a big 'un, Wi't accent on the big,
And all the fellas wi' walking sticks kept giving her a dig.
She were a great big lassie, as didn't know her chassis
Were blown up wi' air I do declare.
Well everthin' were champion, until some silly clown,
Stabbed her with a pin - said the showman with a frown
"All hands to the pumps lads, mi vessel's goin' down",
At the Rawtenstall Annual Fair.

So whether it was the song, our singing or my friend's playing she objected to we don't know but she soon took an interest in us and, just as has been reported by others, things went downhill rapidly after that. (Literally as on our way home I think our car left the road going over Ulpha Fell just stopping short of a ditch - necessitating a rapid sobering up of the driver!)

Saturday Night Dinner

Found on a site called A1 Food Forum under the unlikely heading of Saturday Night Dinner:

There used to be a pub in Boot where the landlady used to do a strip every weekend. She was a middle-aged lady of great character and like her booze.

June Hughes 7/2/2008

Found on a Cycling Forum

Anyone here remember the old woman who used to be landlady at the Burnmoor? Hungarian extraction, or something similar. We used to go for a pint to listen to her being abusive to all and sundry. Quite entertaining in its way. Never be allowed now in the days of corporate image and all. Presume she must be dead by now, but certainly a character, spoken about far and wide in those days of innocence.

Gordon Burn 14/12/2005

Found on Hilpers, Camping in Coniston

Alas, Boot hasn't been the same since Josie ceased being Landlady of the Burnmoor Inn - many years ago, but the memory lingers. She used to strip stark naked and dance on the tables. It wasn't a pretty sight - she was getting on a bit - but it kept the pub, and the local campsites full.

KGB 15/7/2003

Memories of the Cheshire BOOTboys

Derek S is a member of a Cheshire walking group who also go by the name of BOOTboyss (having changed it from Footfrothers).  As it happens, I know Derek from my Provincial Insurance days so when he contacted me for information about walks in the Howgills I challenged him to prove that they were truly BOOTboys.

He responded:

What do you mean by "truly"?

Back in the early 70s we saw Josie flashing her boobs on the bar on Friday nights whilst her husband (with goatee beard as I remember) sat at the end of the bar reading his Lancashire Evening Post.

I well remember our first visit to the Burnmoor. There was a small group of us and we were doing B & B at Brook House - now the Brook House Inn on the corner of the crossroad leading down to the Burnmoor (which I think is now re-named the Boot Inn).

Anyway, three of the wives were pregnant (shows how long ago it was) so we four lads went to get some bottles for them from the Burnmoor, having never been there before.

We were all over six foot tall and were met by Josie in a mini-dress just below sea-level!

First demand was were we all policemen - so big etc - and what were we doing there?

We protested our innocence and asked for something like six bottles of Britvic O J - which she got from the bottom shelf with her backside up in the air. We then asked for six bottles of Mackeson with the same outcome - low shelf, bottom in air - very provocative. I've forgotten what the third request was, but you've guessed it - it was on a low shelf, which prompted a response from Josie along the lines of "What are you perverts doing here? You want to see my arse? I'll show you an arse" etc.

As first-timers it was a bit of a shock, but it didn't stop us returning for several pints as soon as we'd delivered the bottles.

The most memorable occasion was when the then sales manager of Elbeo Tights from Millom brought in a minibusful of girls on a hen night. When Josie found out where they were from, she insisted on trying on a sample pair in full view of everyone in the bar. Crochet mini dress up, no knickers, tried them on there and then. Our wives didn't know where to look - but the lads did!

Happy days!

Derek, 19th August 2009

Crazy Horse

Shortly after the terrible events in Whitehaven and district when cabbie Derrick Bird went on the rampage with his guns, I received the following message:

Madge was another landlady with a lot of character.

We had gone to help Josie out a bit, when her husband, John, died.

Josie was Austrian and had a prisoner number tattoed on her arm.

Her husband John Heap was a British soldier from Blackpool, who she met at the end of the war. She came to the UK with him. I don't know when they arrived at Boot.

Locals had mixed opinions about her antics. Most accepted, some sniffed. And some loved it. There was a lord and lady somebody who lived in the valley who were regular late night legless customers. Regulars included local farmers and li'l ratty drivers. I forget all their names.

Most of my good memories are unprintable, and there are many nights I just don't remember at all.

Her closing time antics were always interesting. A regular call was "Your glasses or your trousers." Then she would go round those lingering with a reversed walking stick hooking the crotches of those who she wanted out. After that, Josie and the chosen one or two, could get down to the serious business with Josie in the chair, and serving yourself till passing out time.

Some of her regular remarks in the daytime to unsuspecting first time were visitors were entertaining. Someone from the campsite would walk in and use the toilet. They would not get out without something like "Vot do you think this is? A f****** piss house?"

A man would go to buy drinks at the bar for the first time, and be studying Josie's dishevelled appearance. Josie would get him the drinks and look at him with a leer and say "Excuse this f****** shirt. It's covered in goose shite. But, there's nothing the matter with vot's underneath." And then pull up the shirt to show her often seen, but, not very beautiful, breasts.

Sometimes visitors would come in and stand there with their jaws dropping at the dingy dark scene. Josie would waste no time in saying, "If you don't like it, f*** off. There are other places."

It did happen that the policeman from the coast on one of his very rare routine visits managed to damage the car on the way back.

Josie left Boot when her daughter Heidi and son-in-law Tony bought her out.  She retired to live in Gosforth.

Happy days!

Ci, 5th June 2010

A Lament for the English Pub

Discovering Josie's surname threw up a hitherto unseen mention of her on Google.  A website called Airgun BBS contains a forum entry dated 23rd June 2009 by someone called Carter, Sgt Wilson that reads:

The Burnmoor Hotel, Boot. That was the best. Marvellous view of Eskdale. Run by a mad old crone called Josie Heap. She walked with a stick, hated tourists and chain smoked Park Drive. Nobody but her was allowed to stoke the fire. When she wanted to get your attention she'd poke you with her walking stick. If you became rowdy with drink you'd be refused service until you ate a bowl of her lamb and vegetable broth. You had to finish it all ..... no empty bowl, no more drink. Opened and shut whenever she felt like it. Last orders were any time between 21:00 and 03:30 in the morning. Marvellous.

Are You Together?

Back in the late 1970's three of us set off for a weekend's walking in Wasdale and called at the Burnmoor Inn after an afternoon stroll to Burnmoor Tarn.  The lady behind the empty bar greeted us with "Have a drink, I've just had the f***ing bank manager - vot a vanker!"

She was topping her glass from a leaking optic on a large bottle of gin and seemed to take very little to weaken it.  We had an animated and amusing conversation about other local hostelries that was eventually interrupted by a middle aged lone walker who called in for a shandy and sat quietly listening to our hostesses colourful banter.  

About fifteen minutes later an attractive and younger lone lady came in to the bar needing refreshment after her walk.  Josie asked the two strangers whether they were together. Both shook their heads in bewilderment. "Vel, you  f***ing vel should be" and renewed the empty bottle of gin.  This was a cue for them to leave, going in separate ways.  

We needed the loo which was out of action so were encouraged to use a bath!

We had met the infamous Josie!

Chris P, 20th May 2011

A National Institution

I had thought that we had come to the end of Big Josie anecdotes but just to make sure, I did a Google search and found a chat site called Caravan Banter with this item that I had not seen before, despite it dating back to 2003.

On Wed 3 Sep 2003 Fran wrote:

Could you tell me if the really friendly old couple still own and run the second pub up the lane in Boot, the one with the beer garden in front.

KGB Replied:

Hi Fran.  That depends which old couple owning the Burnmoor you mean!!!

The original old couple (many years ago) were a National Institution -even mentioned on Radio One.

Josie was famous for tearing ALL her clothes off and literally prancing round the bar stark naked - not a pretty sight, she was getting on a bit. It was quite a shock for a young lad like myself - life was much more innocent back then.

Her language was also very colourful to say the least. I remember once being in there with my wife (then my girlfriend) and another couple got up to leave. Josie bellowed after them "That's right; F##k off, there's better pubs down the valley".

I would hardly call it a family pub in those days.

Alas, Josie died a few years ago (in an old peoples home in W Cumbria I believe - Gawd knows what the other inmates thought of her). She was certainly a colourful character, but her heart was always in the right place - as was the rest of her body: she displayed it often enough for us all to see!!!

Regards, KGB

Don, 29th May 2011

Big Josie, R.I.P.

Via a friend, Tony learned from Heidi, Josie's daughter who still lives in Boot and works in the pub kitchen in the mornings, that Josie moved to Gosforth, having drunk all the profits of the pub, and died in 2001 aged 79,

Don, 9th September 2010

Quieter But Just As Good!

Extract from BB1032  And Then There Were Two

Boot, with Scafell behind

It was not by chance that I had parked near Boot; it was time to pay our respects to the memory of Big Josie so we called in what had been the Burnmoor Inn, now called the Boot Inn.  Either my memory is playing me tricks or it has been extensively remodelled as, internally, I could not recognise it as the place we had visited 37 years before.  

Before She Was Infamous?

Re your series on Big Josie; I am sure she or her protégé used to work as a barmaid in Manchester and particularly the Kersal Cell, which is in Salford.

She, or whoever, had exactly the same attributes during the late 60's / early 70's.
She was called Josie, too, and was generously proportioned.

Alan S, 15th June 2011

Was this Big Josie before she moved to Boot?
Is there more to this story yet?  
We are investigating!

An Idyllic Childhood

The item below appeared as a contribution to the Francis Frith website in 2010. Although she is not named, it is written by someone who appears to be Big Josie's son, in which case it is seems unlikely that the Josie mentioned in Before She Was Infamous? is the same person.

I tried to contact him for further information but so far there has been no reply.  

I moved to Boot in 1952 when I was one. My father, John Heap, was the manager of the Burnmoor Inn, which was owned in partnership by his mother, Ruth Hargreaves, and Sid Cross. They also owned The Old Dungeon Ghyll in Langdale. I attended Eskdale High School with my brothers William & Timothy. Jean Hodgson was the school teacher. She lived in The Hill, near Millom, and stayed from Monday to Friday at Brook House which was owned by the Sim family. Billie Sim also ran the local bus service which went to Whitehaven every Thursday.

The Post Office was run by Mary Nolan, who appeared as a guest on one of the early This is Your Life shows. In the next door farm were Arthur and Florrie Irving and her mother Rosa Dugdale.

Cyril Porter used to deliver bread and cakes, Tom Parker delivered meat, Jack Roberts delivered the milk and Jack Woodall was the local grocer. I used to travel with Tom when he went up the valley. My job was to open (and close) all the farm gates!

I have vivid memories of buying cutprice stock from Dalegarth Station every September when they closed for the winter.

Mr Bailiff lived at Gill Bank Cottage and he used the mill to turn wood. He also had a superb stamp collection.

More memories later when I have more time

Peter Heap, 7th June 2010

Our Links to Big Josie

Oh what strange connections there are!  We have unearthed an improbable but true series of links from Big Josie, of the Burnmoor Inn and BOOTboys fame, to The Three Shires Inn of Tony's family to naked men from the rather upmarket Sharrow Bay Hotel on Ullswater and by a separate route, much to my surprise, to me!

To find out more, see Our Links to Big Josie.

Don, 11th November 2011

Terrifying Flashbacks

20th September 2009

Sir,

For the past thirty years or more an image has been hidden in my subconscious - (my psychotherapist tells me that this is not unusual where mentally traumatic incidents are involved).

Recently however I have been experiencing terrifying flashbacks which, my psychotherapist tells me, can only be exorcised by reproducing the scene graphically and then having it published.

I beg you Sir to please publish this horrifying scene in your estimable organ, that I might rid my tortured mind of this abomination and sleep peacefully once more forever rid of nightmarish recollections. 

Yours,

Edgar Allen Shiels.

Scroll down to see the horrifying scene
referred to in this tragic letter.  

Be warned- it is not for the faint hearted.  

Those of a nervous disposition or easily offended
are advised to navigate away from this page.

Now.

Don't say I didn't warn you!

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This is the web site of the BOOTboys, a loose group of friends of mature years who enjoy defying the ageing process by getting out into the hills as often as possible!

As most live in South Lakeland, it is no surprise that our focus is on the Lakeland fells and the Yorkshire Dales.

As for the name, BOOTboys, it does not primarily derive from an item of footwear but is in memory of Big Josie, the erstwhile landlady of the erstwhile Burnmoor Inn at Boot in Eskdale, who enlivened Saint Patrick's Day 1973 and other odd evenings many years ago!

If you have a story
to tell about Big Josie
or want to contact us,
click on .

• Big Josie of Boot
• After Wainwright
Hubby George on Li'l Ratty
• Overheard on a Train
• Big Josie and the Broken Ribs
• Raped by the Nazis
• And Did Those Feet?
• Roll Up, Roll Up, Come and See the Fat Girl
• Saturday Night Dinner
• Memories of the Cheshire BOOTboys
• Crazy Horse
• A Lament for the English Pub
• Are You Together?
• A National Institution
• Big Josie, R.I.P.
• Quieter But Just As Good!
• Before She Was Infamous?
• An Idyllic Childhood
• Terrifying Flashbacks