Western Daily Press (Saturday)
PUB DAUBED WITH SLAVE GRAFFITI
DEVASTATED STAFF:
APUB that shares a name with a West MP whose ancesters are alleged to have profited from the slave trade has been graffitied.
Staff at The Drax Arms in Dorset have been left “devastated” after it was targeted by vandals with ‘BLM’ graffiti.
The pub in Bere Regis, near Dorchester, was hit by vandalism on Wednesday which saw “BLM” and “slaver” graffitied on the outside of the pub with metallic spray paint.
The Drax Arms is named after the Drax family, which owns a large estate in Dorset. Historical records indicate the family is reported to have owned slaves in the past.
The tenants that run the pub today have said how disgusted they were to wake to the graffiti on Thursday.
A post on the pub’s Facebook page said: “We are a small independent business struggling to make ends meet like all small businesses at the moment.
“We have the most amazing, dedicated team who work so hard at keeping this village asset alive.
“If anyone has wandered by recently you would have seen the incredible work some of them have done in making the outside car park into the most amazing space for everyone to enjoy when we reopen again. This morning when they discovered this they were devastated and heartbroken.
“We all believe Black Lives Matter. We all think the slave trade trade is abhorrent. We cannot change the past, we can only learn from it.”
The post adds: “The Drax Arms is named after the Drax family who own a large estate nearby. In the 1700s this family owned slaves and plantations.
“The Drax Arms, however, is owned by local brewery Hall and Woodhouse who, to the best of my knowledge, have never been part of the slave trade.
“We the Davies family have run the business since 2017.”
The pub has also confirmed that Hall and Woodhouse will be sending a team to assess the damage and will be redecorating the pub over the next few days.
The Drax family has been linked with historical ownership of slaves and plantations.
Richard Drax, who is thought to be the biggest landowner in Parliament, is MP for South Dorset and during the 2010 General Election campaign period the Daily Mirror reported that his family had earned their fortune through slavery.
Mr Drax’s response questioned his responsibility for “something that happened 300 or 400 years ago”, stating “it’s not what I stand for”, and cited the desperation of his opponents – “all they can do is pick at bits of my family history”.
In 2013, the BBC reported that his ancestor John Erle-Drax, who had an estate in Barbados, was recorded in a database created by University College London as having received £4,293 12s 6d in compensation in 1836 for 189 slaves when slavery was abolished.
In 2020 The Guardian reported that Richard Drax still owns and grows sugar on the same Drax Hall plantation in Barbados that made the family’s fortune.
He has recently updated his register of interest with parliamentary authorities to reflect that he will inherit the land in Barbados.
This morning when they discovered this they were devastated and heartbroken THE DRAX ARMS