A Hewett.

An outline of the history of licensed premises in Tewkesbury.

The Victoria County History of Gloucestershire tells us that in 1553 there were 4 inns and 16 taverns in the town. Many of those sixteenth century buildings have been demolished but some recently closed and present day licensed premises probably occupy these old inn and tavern sites.There are a few references to landlords and inns from this early period and from these the name and location of some sites can be given or at least suggested but many are unknown.

Five sites are known to have had inns or taverns on them as early as 1550.

The Crown or New Inn.
The Fox.
The Swan.
The White Hart.
The Black Bear.

The Crown is mentioned as a Hospice 1540 and at the dissolution of the monastery in 1539 it came into the hands of John Peirs. It stood on what is now the Abbey Lawn, behind the bus stop in the Crescent.It later became The Bull and was demolished in 1697. Before the dissolution it was leased by the Abbot and convent of Tewkesbury.The Fox is mentioned in the will of Thomas Cook in 1558. The site is again mentioned in 1725 as The White Horse. It can be established that this was at 75 High Street.The building now standing there dates from around this time and so housed an inn for many years, but may not be of sufficient age to have housed the 1558 Fox. The Swan is mentioned in its present position in the mid sixteenth century but parts are possibly very much older.It is believed to have been an inn as much as 150 years earlier. The White Hart gets a mention in 1538. It was immediately to the south of The Swan and in the late eighteenth century became part of it. The Black Bear as a structure may well have parts dating back to the fourteenth century but it is not known whether or not it was an inn from such a very early date.

Other possible sites of this period are:-

The area of the Methodist Church on which stood an inn which had several names one of which was The Packhorse. Chapel Court which was the site of The Star and Garter.The Plough. The area around the present day Berkeley Arms. The Fleece at 12 High Street. Part or all of the site of Barclays Bank which was later The Black Dog. The Wheatsheaf at number 132 High Street which was next door to The Black Dog. The George is mentioned before 1600 but may not have been on the same site as the later George, and would certainly not have had a King's Head for a sign.

One reason,but not the only one,for suspecting the above sites is Gloucestershire Men and Armour which was published in 1608. This listed all men eligible for military service and also gave their trades.The seventeen men listed as tiplers ,tapsters and innkeepers were in the licensed trade, and this gives a rough idea of the number of houses in the liquor trade at this time. If the entries are assumed to be in house order the overlay of the list to the above sites is quite good. This may however be just good fortune and cannot be used as proof.

Moving on in time, The Plough is recorded in 1644 and The Pelican and The Black Boy are referred to at about the same date but may be earlier names for well known sites. The Talbot,The Pyed Bull, The Three Tuns,The King's Arms, as well as The Globe closed before 1820 but the names may be earlier ones of houses which survived later into the eighteenth century or even to the present day. The Admiral Benbow on the Quay would have been open by 1710 and The Maidenhead which was later to became The Star and Garter, and the unlocated Globe in Barton Street were trading in the mid 1700s. The Feathers, The Sun, The Nag's Head,The Cross Keys,The Rose and Crown and The Chequers were some of the houses which were open time before 1750 and whose positions are known. Most of these closed before 1870. The old established Dog and Duck, in the High Street was a definite closure before 1820.

Sources.

Names and dates relating to licensed premises can be obtained from references in wills and deeds and other documents. The Tewkesbury Court Order Books survive from 1774 but the County Archivist advises me that although lists of licencees are contained threin the names of their establishments are not. The main source for landlords and house names are local directories, census returns, The Tewkesbury Register and B.Linnell's book on The Public Houses of Tewkesbury Borough. Many more sources such as rating lists etc.have not been studied so there is much left to discover for someone with interest and time. Local histories and some of the older town guides give some small tit bits not found elsewhere.

The method used here is to extract the information relevant to the licensed trade from the available directories and to use other sources to help fill in details often not given in the directories. The earlier directories did not always have street names or numbers. Public house names are also sometimes missing but can usually be worked out from non directory sources. Where I have added house names, I have, if it is known, used the contemporary name, or if not known, the latest or most used name. It should be noted that it was usual for locations in alleys and small side streets to be given the address of the main road off which the alley or side road ran. Before 1830 the directories list licensed public house names and after 1830 the directories list the licensed houses as before but now also have a new category.This was the beerhouse. The landlord or landlady was called a beerhouse keeper or beer retailer in the directories, or more rarely, in the census returns, a publican or innkeeper. He or she kept a beershop or a beerhouse. The 1830 Beer Act allowed any ratepayer to brew and sell beer on his premises. All that was needed was a two pound permit from the local excise officer. No magisterial control was involved, providing the local licensing laws and the law of the land were obeyed. Their opening hours were more restricted than the full license holder whose own hours were also gradually becoming more limited.The laws governing licensed premises will be dealt with later. It was not until 1869 that magistrates had any control over the licensing of beer houses. Bennett's Monthly Register and Gazette for 1830 reports that 10 new beer houses opened in that year. Before 1869 there also seems to have been a requirement for the beerhouse keeper to hold a shilling license from the local magistrates.There were prosecutions for not having one.Unlike the slowly declining fully licensed houses, the beerhouse numbers had yet to rise and fall. Not all of them ended their days as beer houses, some obtained a full license before going under naturally or being forced under later. Some of those that started at least their relatively recent life as beerhouses are still with us.They are:-

The Berkeley Arms.
The Albion.
The White Bear.
The Britannia.
The Nottingham Arms.

Another valuable source of information are the census returns which provide a snapshot of the town every ten years from 1841 to 1891. Returns before 1841 do not survive and those after 1901 are not released. The main occupation of the household members is listed but as beer selling was often just a sideline some occupiers are not shown as beer house keepers and so their premises were not always identified as beerhouses in the census returns. The use or non use as a beer house can usually be deduced with the help of other sources.So not being listed as a beer house does
not rule out the possibility that a site was occupied by one.

Extracts relative to the licensed trade from The British Universal Directory of 1798 are given below. There are twenty four names listed associated with the licensed trade either as an innholder or a victualler.This may not be a complete list of those in the trade because in 1820 there were 28 licensed premises in town and the number of public houses had been falling for some time before that. It should be noted that although published in 1798 the Gloucestershire entries were compiled in 1792-93. No addresses and only a few house names are given.The three named inns were
described in Dyde's Town History as the principal inns:-

The inns furnish excellent accommodation for the traveller.The principal are, The Swan in the High Street,The Hop Pole in Church Street and The Star and Garter in Barton Street. The theatre in the town is a temporary building in the yard of The Star and Garter.

The information in brackets is inferred from other sources.

1798 The British Universal Directory. 24 Houses.

As well as the three inns in the list,The Fleece and The Cross Keys are mentioned in the preface of Dydes History. The Nelson, if open at this time would have had a different name.The Star and Garter which stood on the site of Chapel Court in Barton Street closed between 1798 and 1800. The Dowdswell Arms was on the site of the Severn Lock House and outside the borough. Before the Telford bridge over the Severn was built in 1826 this was the site of a busy river crossing.Three other houses which may have still been open at this time were The Black Dog which occupied all or part of what is now the site of Barclay's Bank in High Street, The Black Boy and The Dog and Duck at unknown locations in the High Street. Many other names are known but may be older names for houses which survived to a much later date. Not many of the early names contained the word arms.This was fairly recent usage that became fashionable in the late eighteenth century.There are old examples such as The Butcher's Arms which already had this name by 1770, but this may be a nickname for The King's Arms which stood in Church Street.

The Victoria County History has 9 Inns plus additional Taverns in 1781 and this ties in with the nine innholders given in The British Universal Directory of 1798 and a possible conclusion from this is that there were no inn closures between 1781 and 1793.

The next directory is from 1820 and carries house names but no street numbers.This list will be used as a basis for the fully licensed houses which from this period to the present day slowly declined in numbers.

1820 General Directory. 27 Houses.

Also listed was William Ricketts. Wines and Spirits. This was on The Britannian site.

Some of these,The King's Head, The Duke of York, The Black Bear, The Hop Pole,The Bell, The George, The Anchor,The Plough still trade. The Swan, The Wheatsheaf and The Nelson closed within the last 40 years. Most of the others closed before 1900. The Star and The Severn Trow were on the quay which is the area on which Healing's Mill and its lorry parks stood. The Sun was to the north, and The Feathers to the south of old Sun Street which is a little south of the present Sun Street. The Nag's Head was at the top of the east side of High Street in the region of the library. The Eight Bells was south of The Hop Pole and had other names such as The Hop Pole Tap and Riverside before becoming northern part of The Hop Pole Hotel.

Pigot's Directory of 1822 has 28 sites listed, one more than The 1820 General. No extracts are shown here because apart from a few changes of landlord the only difference is the addion of The Lord Nelson to the list of licensed houses and the change of name of The Eight Bells to The Hop Pole Tap. The site of The Lord Nelson is the present day western corner of Nelson Street.

Pigot's Directory of 1830 again has 28 sites but two new names appear. The Buck and Breeches had become The Tracy Arms and The Red Lion was almost certainly a new name for The Nag's Head which disappears from the lists at this point. The Nag's Head can be located from an 1821 charity rental list as lying somewhere between 77 High Street and seven houses north of The Feathers.Number 84, the site of The Red Lion, is in this range. It is not unreasonable to assume that The Nag's Head occupied this site which also had several other names over a period of time.

It is known following the passing of the 1830 beer act that ten of the new beerhouses opened in Tewkesbury. No local directories are available from the early to middle eighteen thirties. Robson's Directory of 1839 has 13 beerhouses. These are listed below. None of them are listed by any more than street name. Fully licensed houses are are not listed here but any closures or changes in licensed status are noted. This pattern will be followed throughout.

1839 Robsons Directory.

13 Beerhouses. 26 Full licenses.39 Total. Only beerhouses shown here.

Between 1830 and 1839 fully licensed Mason's Arms on the west side of Church Street closed and a beerhouse of the same name appeared on the eastern side on part of the British Legion site.The Feathers was demolished to develop the railway station which lay on the northern side of the line.The Unicorn appeared and The Red Lion disappeared.These two sites may be linked. The Quart Pot in Church Street was demolished in 1837 and was replaced by the newly erected Queen's Arms.It was named in honour of Queen Victoria who ascended the throne in that year.

The voter's list of 1841 has 28 licencees listed.23 of them were innkeepers or publicans and only 5 were beer sellers reflecting the difference in financial status between the two types of landlord. Only the better off had the vote through property ownership.

Pigot's 1842 Directory lists 25 fully licensed premises and 16 beer houses compared with 26 and 13 in 1839. The missing house is The Star on the quay. It appears in many other directories up to its closing date some 50 years on and so its absence indicates either a brief change of status or a short period of closure.

1842 Pigot's Directory.

16 Beerhouses.25 Full licenses.41 Total. Only beerhouses shown here.

1856 Kelly's Directory.

16 Beerhouses 23 Full licenses.39 Total. Only Beerhouses shown here.

Also listed.

Joseph Firkins. Wine and Spirit Dealer. The Shakespeare site.
George Wilcox. Wine and Spirit Dealer. The Barrel site.
John Snelus. Gardener. Church Street on The Berkeley site. This indicates that The Berkeley Arms may not have been trading at this time.

The George was not listed in 1856 but The Star on the Quay reaappeared. Newly built in 1837 The Queen's Arms was closed by 1856 as was The Hop Pole Tap, formerly called The Eight Bells. Another fully licensed house which closed around this time was The Severn Trow which was on the Quay. The Red Lion appears in the list again but The Unicorn disappears. They never appear at the same time giving the possibility that they occupied the same site. A new house, The Ship and Castle at 61 High Street appears in the 1856 directory as a fully licensed site but it seems not to have obtained this license until 1859 previously having been a beerhouse.

The Red Lion can,with certainty,be placed at what was 84 High Street. The occupier of this site in 1841 according to the census was Emma Walker. James Walker was landlord of The Unicorn in Pigot's 1842 directory.The alley along side the premises was Red Lion Alley in 1841 but had become Unicorn Alley before 1848 when alley names were made permanent by the local council. It seems that this site may have spent ten years or more as The Unicorn around about the 1840s despite later evidence which occurs in a Tewkesbury Register editorial in the interests of which an increase in the number of closed premises was of use.This may also been the site of The Nag's Head.

1863 Kelly's Directory.

14 Beerhouses 24 Full licenses.38 Total. Only Beerhouses shown here.

Between the years 1856 and 1863 we see the closure of The Cross Keys in 1858, The Sun in 1860 and The Ship and Castle about 1863. All were fully licensed premises. The Cross Keys became a draper's shop. The Sun was demolished about this time to allow the widening of Sun Street.The New Sun Hotel was planned for the site and the foundation stone was laid but it was never built. The Lacemaker's Arms is listed as public house in 1863. It had existed before as a beer house at 34 Barton Street and was a beer house at a later date which gives it a short life as a fully licensed house.The George reappeared and a new name The Ship and Traveller appears. The location of The Ship and Traveller is very much a mystery.Henry Chandler,the landlord of The Ship and Castle left and Maria Thornbury Price took over but soon the house ceased to trade.This was in 1863 and later that year a Henry Chandler appears at The Ship and Traveller in High Street. He is still listed in directories of 1874 and 1879 but does not show up in the censuses of 1871 or 1881 anywhere in the High Street and no corresponding licensed premises can be matched to him.

1865-66 Morris's Directory.

14 Beerhouses 22 Full licenses.36 Total. Only Beerhouses shown. Some House names appear in this directory.

The full license given to The Albion in 1864 was the one given up with the closure of The Sun.The policy of the magistrates at this time seems to have been not to grant any new licenses and not necessarily to pass on lapsed licenses to other premises.The licenses of The Queen's Arms,The Hop Pole Tap, The Chequers and The Mason's Arms were among many which were never trasnsferred after closure.The Britannia gained its spirit licence in 1865 and The Fleece Inn closed. The Lord Nelson disappared from the directories but The Nelson took its place.The problem of The Lord Nelson and The Nelson:-

Early directories list The Lord Nelson as one of the fu lly licensed houses and later ones list The Nelson Inn.The local press at this time uses both names interchangeably.This suggests they were one and the same but then Kelly's directory of 1863 lists both establishments in Barton Street with different landlords. Although the directories put The Nelson in Barton Street it was in fact in Nelson Alley and when this was demolished it was in Nelson Street. In the 1886 Ordnance Survey map it still did not have a main street frontage.There is a possibility that the shop front belonging to The Nelson at some time bore one of the names but there is no real evidence for this.

1868.Slater's Directory.

13 Beerhouses 24 Full licenses.37 Total. Only Beerhouses shown in table.

Wine and Spirit Dealers.

Dobell and Co. High Street.
Charlotte Firkins. High Street.
Isaac Nind.

In 1869 all houses in the trade were required to have a license, either a full spirit license or a beer license. All existing houses applied and all were licensed to their previous status of full or beer license.They are named below.

A list of 37 licensed premises for 1869.

Since the Beerhouse Act of 1830 some of the beerhouses had achieved fully licensed status,some had closed, some had done both and,slowly the rest were to follow.From now on there was a slow reduction of houses except for a batch of compenated closures in 1917 when many of the poorer houses were made to close en bloc.To my knowledge only one more beerhouse opened
after 1869 and this was The Teddington Arms at 57 High Street. The Chequers Inn at 18 Church Street closed about 1869. It became a butchers shop. The Red Lion changed its name to The
Cross Keys and then closed about 1872. It was demolished and two houses built on the site.The New Inn which opened at 119 High Street in 1858 moved to 28 High Sreet where business intermittently carried on until 1917. The Star on The Quay and The Brewer's Arms, formerly The Quart Pot, gave up their licenses in 1883 although The Star ceased trading a little before this. Also by 1883,The Lacemaker's Arms at 34 Barton Street had ceased to trade but it held its license until 1902. The Sailor's Return in Bray's Court still had a license in 1891 but was closed before then. The White Hart in Quay Lane shut in 1891. From 1890 The Tewkesbury Register in its annual report on the local magistrates' licensing sessions gave figures for the number of licensed premises.They are accurate, but represent the number of licenses held in the borough and not the number of sites that were trading.The local directories of this time show lower numbers because they list sites that were open and do not include temporarily closed licensed premises.They differ on the status of such places as The Barrel,The Shakespeare and The Britannia, sometimes treating them as public houses and at other times as wine and spirit dealers. Figures from The Register and the directories are given below. Grocer's and off licenses are not included nor is The Odessa Inn as this was outside the old borough limits.

Licensed Victuallers in Gloucestershire, was an official publication showing owners, occupiers and lessees of houses.The rateable value and license information is also given. Various categories of license are shown.There was the full spirit license, and the beer license which would normally be a beer and cider license but The Berkeley Arms held a beer and wine license.There were also various types of off license, and a sweets license.Two houses held only six day licenses and were therefore closed on Sundays.The two houses were The Britannia and The Shakespeare which were wine and spirit shops at this time. It is interesting to point out some of the differences between the two years 1890 and 1903.The number of licenses fell by one. The number of free houses fell from ten, most of them with owner occupiers, to just two, these two being The Swan and The Coach and Horses.

The following list in order of Rateable Value is based on Licensed Victaullers in Gloucestershire 1891.A rough idea of the relative importance of the premises can be gained from it. The figures on the right are for 1903 and show some changes of fortune over the years especially the rise of The Plough from number nine to number two,probably as a result of recent alterations. Major changes to The Oddfellow's Arms also account for its rise from thirty one to sixteen.It originally occupied the site of 109 High St.but in 1898 it extended to number 110 as well. It is not unreasonable to assume that some fairly large works had taken place at The Albion to account for its rise to six from fifteen.

Rateable Value based on Licensed Victaullers in Gloucestershire 1891 and 1903.

The following table shows the changing pattern of ownership in this relatively short space of time.

From the same source as above.

Note. Arnold Perrett took over The Tewkesbury Brewery Co.

The next major landmark on the road to decline was the compulsory closure of seven houses in 1917.An act of Parliament allowed the compulsory closure with compensation of insanitary, unsuitable and unnecessary houses.These houses often made very small or no profits and it was to the advantage of customer and brewery to see a smaller number of more comfortable and more profitable premises. The continuation of the existence of The Royal Oak,The George,The Nelson,The White Lion,The Farrier's Arms,The Teddington Arms,The Forester's Arms,The Tracy Arms,The Happy Return,The New Inn and The Aurora were under threat when the Licensing Authority opposed the renewal of their licenses.The bench did renew the licenses of The Nelson and The George but referred the others to the Compensation Authority.With the exception of The Tracy Arms they all had their licenses refused and ceased to trade as licensed premises. The Tracy Arms lasted another twelve years until 1929 ?? The Mason's Arms followed in 1937 later to become part of the British Legion site.The Railway Inn closed in 1951 and shortly after in 1956 The Wheatsheaf, whose full license was transferred to The Berkeley Arms so ending its status as the only beerhouse remaining in the town.The coach and Horses was next in 1962 andthen The Shakespeare and The Barrel in 1964 and 1965 respectively. The closure of The Nelson in 1970 and The Oddfellow's Arms in 1971 were the last permanent closures until that of The Swan.

The Plough changed names several times and after a closure became a nightclub. The Duke of York closed and became the site of an accountancy firm. The King's Head closed and has been turned into flats and the Hop Pole has after, a major work programme, become Wetherspoons.

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