Albino Rats.

There was a popular urban myth some years back about the alligators that were supposed to inhabit the sewers of New York. The legend was that the reptiles had been aquired as pets and when they started growing they were released into the sewers and lurked below the surface living on a diet of rats and anything else they could find in the sewers of that city. The myth became so well established that it even appeared in one of the novels of Thomas Pynchon, 'V'. or 'The Crying Of Lot 49' I think. It turns out that Silverton nearly had its own urban myth regarding vermin.

Back in the day, when The Silverton Inn was still The New Inn-as it still should be-it had a landlord named John Neary, an ex Royal Marine RSM who bore an uncanny resemblance to the late Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein. On one occasion, Neary was troubled by a particularly active rat which eventually he trapped in a pipe and disposed of by the use of caustic soda which had the effect of turning the corpse of the deceased rodent white. When the white corpse was removed from the pipe the word got around that The New Inn was infested by a colony of albino rats.

Luckily for the current and future owners of the pub the myth never became as established as that of the New York sewer alligators, although perhaps if someone wants to rename the pub in the future The Albino Rat might be a possibility.