Jump to full article: The Press Association (uk), 2009-06-24
Intro: A 17th century pub near where Sir Walter Raleigh is rumoured to have first smoked a pipe of tobacco is to run a stop-smoking course.
The Long Arms in South Wraxall near Bradford-on-Avon, in Wiltshire, is just two fields away from South Wraxall Manor, where legend has it tobacco was smoked for the first time in England.
Landlady Jacqui Price, who has run the pub with her husband Bob for the past four years, is signing up to the sessions along with head chef Dan Hinds. The scheme will be run for customers in the autumn.
Sir Walter is said to have been the first to bring tobacco to Britain from the New World in the late 16th century, and a maid at South Wraxall Manor reputedly doused him in water after thinking he was on fire as he puffed away on his pipe.
But The Long Arms has been badly hit by the nationwide smoking ban, introduced in England in July 2007, and is now also suffering as a result of the credit crunch.
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