Inns on the Edge

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• The Humber

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  The Humber Hotel stood along Humber Street on the way to the docks. Built at the end of the Georgian era, the Humber was rectangular in plan with a low angled hipped roof, brick stacks and projecting eaves.

  Along the ground floor, overlooking Cleethorpe Road, the hotel had a shopfront with pilasters, fascia and projecting cornice with a second entrance from Humber Street. A mixture of marginal sash windows and other multi-pane examples were arranged along each elevation's ground and upper floor.

  
  

  In 1937, the brewery Hewitt built a new Humber Hotel in the hotel's original gardens, and the old building became a pair of houses. The new Humber Hotel was built in a loose Neo-Georgian style with classical motifs, such as the corner segmental arch with pediment and short flat portico entrance with a mixture of stone dressings and red brick.

  In the 1980s, the original Humber Hotel was demolished to make way for a car park. The new Humber Hotel continued to trade until the early 2000s when it was turned into a shop.

• The Fisherman’s Arms, the Cliff Hotel and the Dolphin Inn, Cleethorpes

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  Originally three separate houses, the Fisherman’s Arms dates from the early 19^th Century and could be accessed from the corners of Wardall or Sea View Street. The Fisherman’s Arms retains a traditional timber frontage at ground floor level with classical pilasters (ornamental features giving the impression of supporting columns) flanking a series of large mullioned windows (divided by a vertical feature).

  Along the first floor, a series of oriel windows (a set of windows arranged in a bay) presumably formed part of the accommodation and apartments advertised for rent to sailors and visitors throughout the 19^th century.

  In 1885, this included a fisherman named John Clements, aged 18, who lost his balance from the topmast of a fishing smack (a traditional fishing boat with a sail) named The Granville and fell to his death. The pub was often the site of inquests into the death of sailors, such as Isaac Pegdon, an apprentice on board the Star of Brunswick who fell overboard while sculling and could not swim. Foreign sailors were also taken to the pub for inquests. In 1853, this included one Nicholas Yorganson, who, intoxicated, accidentally slipped off the plank while trying to board his vessel and drowned in the dock. Not all death connected to the pub involved the sea. In 1945, having seemingly filled a petrol canister, John Flinn of the Fisherman’s Arms and his son were killed after sticking a match in the canister to see if it was full!

  As I prepare to enter the pub, I spot an empty lantern bracket attached to the fascia. Lamps often advertised the presence of a pub (especially during the Victorian era) and were sometimes required by licensing justices. Just below, in the glass above the door, are etched the words “The Fish”, a catchy colloquialism for the pub’s name (and not too dissimilar from “The Carp” I visited a few months ago in Boston). Inside, the main serving area is dominated by a prominent contemporary bar counter surrounded by walls lined with panelling. Exposed floorboards, dark oak chairs, and tables help promote the look and feel of a traditional pub with modern furnishings.

  Just along the street from the Fisherman’s Arms, I make my way to the former site of the Cliff Hotel on the corner of Sea View Street, demolished in 2004 to make way for a modern apartment block. In the 1830s, the Cliff Hotel was a grand seaside villa owned by Richard Chapman overlooking the North Sea. In 1855, Chapman converted the house into a hotel and it remained a popular destination for visitors and residents for the next 100 years. At the beginning of the 20^th century, the hotel exterior was re-designed in a neo-classical style with rendered facade, rusticated (textured) brickwork and decorative stucco (plasterwork) in the form of swag and drop frieze underneath some windows. Towards the seafront, a large new entrance supported by columns and a segmental (curved) pediment welcomed guests. Under Hewitt’s, the Grimsby Brewery, the hotel side of the business was rebranded and functioned as the Toby Inn in the 1970s before the site was converted into a nightclub and remained under various names until the early 2000s. In 2003, the green light was given for the building’s demolition, bringing to a close over 170s years of seaside history.

  Standing on the corner of Alexandra Road and Market Street, the Dolphin was rebuilt in the 1820s to accommodate guests to the burgeoning seaside town. This grand building is a jumble of architectural styles with hints of gothic and Romanesque revival and a splash of Italianate for good measure. The current Dolphin Inn was built in the 1820s and replaced an earlier 18^th century inn by the same name in the town, making it among the first ‘bathing inns’ on the Lincolnshire coast. Bathing machines allowed people to change their usual clothes into swimwear on the beach. They were popular from the second half of the 18^th century until the early 20^th century. In 1939, an advert for the Dolphin boasted of electric lights throughout the hotel and hot and cold running water in all bedrooms. This rivalled nearby hotels like the Cliff or Old Clee Park. An early 20^th century sketch of the hotel shows the building exterior hasn’t changed much. The front entrance glazed porch or portico has gone, and a single-storey range has been added to the north side. The hotel continued to attract household names as guests, including the comic duo Laurel and Hardy in the 1950s and Norman Wisdom in the 1970s. The Dolphin has recently undergone various uses and name changes, including a nightclub and an American-style eatery. It is currently a live music venue.

• Gloucester Arms

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  This pub was located on the corner of Albert and Bridge Street. It was built in the 1860s by the merchant William Butt who also had the White Swan (directly opposite the Humber Hotel) and the Havelock Hotel on Kent Street.

  The appearance of the Gloucester Arms resembled several pubs built in large towns and cities from the 1870s onwards, as publications made their pubs more conspicuous to bring trade. A two-storey corner pub, the Gloucester Arms was a mixture of gothic and vernacular classical design, with mullioned windows resembling church architecture and classical-inspired pilasters, finials and broken pediments.

  In 1877 the landlord was a Mr Parsons. Parsons was fined 20 shillings for permitting drunkenness on the premises, and a year later, the new landlord Mr Atkinson was sent to prison for assaulting his wife. In 1883, the pub was run by Thomas Ramskill, who was charged on two counts of permitting drunkenness and in 1897, the former landlord William Butt was summoned to court for poaching fish (he was acquitted). The Gloucester continued to trade until the end of the 1960s when it was demolished along with a number of the terrace houses in the area. Local housing now covers the site where the pub once stood.

  
  

  

  

  
  

  
  

• Victoria Tavern, Hogsthorpe and Kings Head Inn, Theddlethorpe

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  Originally a beerhouse, the Victoria Tavern has been serving customers since 1869.

  In 1909 it was one of 3 licensed houses in Hogsthorpe, the others being the long-established Saracen’s Head and the Bell. The Victoria Tavern is a modest two-storey building loosely rectangular in plan with an additional single-storey extension.

  In 1900, the licensee was William Parish. In 1922, Parish found himself as a witness in a bigamy case against his former wife, Annie Bell. Bell was charged with bigamy marrying several local men, including Parish.

  Under Parish, the pub was partly rebuilt, including the addition of the single-storey extension (left-hand side).

  The pub’s alterations helped compete with the Bell and Saracen’s Head as a place to stay for visitors to the village. Before this, local JP Mr William Briggs considered the pub in such disrepair that the license should be revoked! Unfortunately, the pub was closed when I arrived. Hopefully, I will get a second chance to visit before the project ends.

  The King’s Head Inn, Theddlethorpe, is located opposite the old methodist chapel, on the road towards Saltfleetby.

  The pub was closed when I arrived, but Dave, the landlord, came out to greet me while walking around outside. Dave and partner Jackie have been in the pub industry for decades and worked in a pub in Northumbria before purchasing the King’s Head in the early noughties.

  The King’s Head is a handsomely thatched building that reportedly dates from the early seventeenth century.

  Originally a house or smallholding, the King’s Head was licensed to sell alcohol in the 19th Century; however, the age of the building (almost 400 years old) makes this one of the oldest places I’ve visited along the coast. Inside, the pub retains its old-world feel with open fireplaces and exposed wood and brickwork. In the 20th century, the pub was extended towards the east, adding additional rooms for dining and accommodation.

  A porch with a cloakroom was also built at the front entrance. An early photograph shows the pub before these alterations. In the 1950s, following a fire, the pub had a corrugated iron roof fitted. An old photograph shows what the building looked like before all the thatch was put back and the roof restored.

  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Dave and Jackie kindly show me pictures of the internal framework of the roof, rebuilt in traditional methods. In the oldest part of the pub (overlooking the village main road), the ceiling is less than 5ft 9in high and even less where there are beams; an open brick fire dominates much of this room, adding to the place’s charm. I’m told this section of the pub was formerly a butcher shop before being converted into a snug and lately holiday accommodation.

  Jackie tells me it was in this room the famous poet Alfred Tennyson was taken following a visit to nearby Theddlethorpe Mill. Tennyson needed medical attention after hitting his head inspecting the flour mill.

  Apparently, Tennyson was laid down on a table while the local butcher added stitches to the poet’s head (I hope he was offered a strong drink before and after surgery)! A statue of Alfred Tennyson can be found in Lincoln outside Cathedral. Photo credit Andrew Price.

  

  
  

  
  

  Despite being almost 400 years old, the building is currently not on the national heritage list, and if the Tennyson story could be confirmed, perhaps it should be.

  
  

  
  

  
  

• The Bull and Dog and the Kings Head Inn, Freiston

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  The Bull and Dog has been welcoming regulars and visitors through its doors since the first half of the 19th Century (if not many years before).

  L shaped in plan, the Inn presumably began as one or two ground-floor rooms with additional rooms added over time.

  Situated on the corner of the main road into the village, close to the ancient church dedicated to St James, the building has seen many renovations. The roof was previously thatched, replaced by modern tiles and dormers overlooking the church grounds.

  
  

  Aerial view of the Bull and Dog in the 1960's.

  Adjacent to the Inn, to the right, is an old stable or barn, converted to residential use and now separate from the pub. In the past, the gap between the two buildings served as the entrance to the yard at the back of the Inn for stabling etc.

  Inside the pub, I am met by the landlady Oliva who bought the Bull and Dog from the brewery two years ago. Oliva has been in the trade for over 20 years, but this is the first pub she has owned.

  The pub interior is modern, with only a few hints of its history surviving in photographs on the walls and the exposed beams above my head.

  The Bull and Dog today.

  I meet some of the regulars at the bar, including Jane Majury, who kindly offers to promote the project on local radio (Endeavour FM). Jane tells me a few stories about the place, such as the adjacent barn used to be a dance hall before the brewery sold it off, and in the early noughties, the pub’s chimney caught fire, closing the place for a few months.

  I later found out about the sad death of Sarah Bourne, aged six, daughter of the landlord John Bourne. In 1855 Sarah died from typhus believed to be caused by contaminated water from an open-pit adjoining the churchyard.

  
  

  At the opposite end of the village, a few hundred yards away from the Bull and Dog, stands the King’s Head Inn.

  According to the website, the King’s Head dates back to the 1600s. The building is old enough to date from this period and is built in a vernacular style (traditional local style using local craftspeople and materials). It originally had one or two rooms constructed of stone (or mud and stud ) with a garret under a thatched roof.

  The roof is now tiled (although some original fabric may still lurk underneath), and the external walls are consolidated with render.

  The iron support post

  
  

  Inside, the pub retains some of its old-world feel, with an open fireplace, low ceiling with exposed beams and wall seating. At some point, the pub was extended towards the rear, doubling the size of the pub.

  Opposite the fireplace, an unusual iron post helps support the ceiling and marks the beginning of the later phase of the building.

  The servery area is small and the counter is framed by a basket arch, a feature in several pubs along the coast.

  The bar and servery

  
  

  At the bar, I meet with Dawn and Wayne.

  The couple have been running the King’s Head since August.

  Dawn kindly shows me around, and after a brief chat, we part ways but not before she tells me the pub have recently re-started a darts team.

  
  

  
  

  The Kings Head Inn todayIn 1961, the pub reached the national darts teams championships in London, losing to the Clayton Arms from North Tyneside in the final.

  This year, the team would settle for beating their neighbours, the Bull and Dog.

  
  

• The Corporation Arms, Grimsby

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  Attending the workshopSince my last post, I have been busy attending workshops on how to research local pub history with my colleague Ian Marshman.

  The first workshop was held at the Grimsby Fishing Heritage Centre. Afterwards, we took the opportunity to visit the Corporation Arms on nearby Freeman Street.

  The Corporation Arms is a Grade 2 listed three-storey building. Built using red brick and stone dressings it's recorded as being constructed in the late 19th Century. The building is slightly older than the listing suggests, and we can now accurately date construction to 1864/5.

  
  

  
  
  First licenced in 1865 and known as the Corporation Hotel, it was built soon after the completion of Freeman Street in 1863 in response to Grimsby's growing industry when the docks opened in 1849.

  Between 1858 and 1866 an astonishing 3,400 new houses were built to accommodate Grimby's rapidly increasing population.

  An 1866 advert in the Lincolnshire Chronicle boasts of the hotel's 'exceptional quality with superior accommodation for travellers and commercial gentleman'.

  During this period, the Corporation Arms was also a meeting place for societies and important town business. For example the decision to build the original Freeman Street Market was agreed upon at the hotel.

  
  The pub as it looks today

  The Corporation Hotel has also courted notoriety:

  In 1883, the landlord of the Corporation Arms (Mr H. J. Curry) was prosecuted after harbouring prostitutes at the premises.

  In 1885, the hotel was the location of attempted murder! Frederick Muller, a public house pianist, shot his estranged wife with a revolver in the passage leading to the bar. Thankfully, the bullet missed his wife and passed through her hat. Muller was apprehended at the scene and sentenced to 10 years of penal servitude (prisoners sent to prison were forced to do hard physical work).

  In 1926, drama, tragedy and flames engulfed the hotel. The licensee, Mrs Maria Drayton, was tragically killed leaping from the second-floor window to escape a fire that had broken out in the early hours. Two female residents climbed onto the roof of the small canted oriel window (a bay window that you can still see today) on the first floor, before jumping to a nearby fireman's ladder. According to one report, wind from both directions turned the building into a 'raging furnace', leaving the interior 'completely gutted'.

  
  

  Fireplace in the old Smoke Room
  The Corporation Arms is one of the few pubs within the project area to make it into CAMRA’s Real Heritage Pubs booklet, described as “one of the best historic interiors in the region”. CAMRA supports pubs and breweries and campaigns for real ale.

  In the guidebook, the pub's old Smoke Room is described as a 'truly splendid historic interior of a once-proud Victorian pub.' However, one suspects the wooden field panelling of this room would have been among the first things destroyed by fire in 1926.

  Similarly, the "original" ground floor moulded plaster cornices and mantelpiece mentioned in the official list entry for the building were probably installed following the fire.

• Angel Inn, Wrangle

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  Angel Inn location

  The current Angel Inn was built during the first half of the 19th Century. It stood in the shadow of the impressive church of St Mary and St Nicholas, the oldest building in the village.

  In medieval times, Wrangle was an important local port and market centre. It relied on nearby Hangel Creek for access to the sea. The sheltered port lay 400 meters to the west of the present church. Parish information tells us that a predecessor of the Angel Inn stood on its banks.

  The name Angel Inn comes from its proximity to the church. The Inn reflects the early connection between religious establishments and travellers’ hostels dating back to the Middle Ages.

  The Inn is loosely rectangular in plan with a two-storey front flanked by single-storey ranges on either side. Access is via a front doorway decorated with frieze and cornice. A side entrance overlooking the road is of a similar design.

  

  The Inn's ground and upper floor windows are a mixture of modern casements and original sashes. They are in half and full Georgian designs. Ogee motifs (pointed s shaped arches) decorate the ground floor window heads. These are accentuated by three light windows overlooking the road. A hipped slate roof and corbelled bricked stacks (supported by weight supporting brackets) complete the building's outward appearance.

  
  

  During the 19th Century, the pub had a small courtyard at the back for stabling, adjoined to a blacksmith. An 1880 map of the area depicts a loose courtyard design. Which is easily seen by passing trade from the road to Boston and Wainfleet.

  At the beginning of the 20th Century, the courtyard was altered to the current layout. With some outbuildings demolished.

  During the 19th Century and early 20th Century, the pub was the headquarters for the Wrangle and East Lincolnshire Agricultural Society. They hosted dinners for members, held lectures on food production and the benefits of farm mechanisation and provided advice on the latest new tech and methods coming to market.

  Sadly, the Angel was closed when I arrived. Still, a quick look through the window revealed a contemporary bar counter, wall seating, exposed ceiling beams and stud work. There are no obvious signs of the pub's links to agriculture until walking away from the building. Then I notice an old plough wheel fixed above one of the windows. A subtle gesture to the Angel's ties to the local farming community past and present.

• Old Leake, Boston

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  White Hart Pub

  This week I am in Old Leake, a small village just off the A52 on the way to nearby Wrangle. My first stop is to the White Hart, opposite the 12th Century parish church of St Mary.

  The White Hart was built in the 19th Century and Thomas Leake ran it between 1856 and 1870 followed by George Dawson. It is a modest two-storey inn with a central front doorway and marginal border sashes to each floor, crowned with a saltbox roof. Inside, the pub retains some of its mid-20th Century alterations, such as the wall seating and bar counter. At the bar, I meet Sheila who has been serving pints at the White Hart for 45 years. Shelia is keen to talk about the pub’s charity work and links to the local community, as well as some of the changes to the pub in recent years, such as the loss of a single storey dining range and beer garden demolished to make way for new housing.

  After a brief chat about Inns on the Edge, I make my way to the Bricklayer’s Arms, just up the road along the A52.

  Bricklayers Arms Pub

  The Bricklayer Arms has been serving locals and visitors to the area for the last 180 years. The building is loosely rectangular in plan with single-storey ranges on either side of the main two-storey Victorian house. The pub is situated on the ground floor with landlord accommodation upstairs. Above the entrance is a small wooden door canopy dating to the early 1920s, given by Mrs Bateman (of Bateman’s brewery) from her own house in Wainfleet. Before Batemans, the pub operated its own brewery and builders’ yard at the back of the premises (circa 1837-1899).

  
  

  Bricklayers Arms Brewery

  Bricklayers Arms Brewery was owned by the Horton family, who were bricklayers by trade hence the pub’s name. The brewery remained in existence until the beginning of the 20th Century when poor water supplies resulted in closure. Nearly all the brewery buildings have been demolished except for a small L-shaped building directly behind the pub, used to store raw materials (note the first-floor goods door) and a single brick range across the yard.

  Inside, the pub’s staff are busy serving customers. Still, I manage to have a brief chat with Clare, who tells me that after the Horton family, the pub owner was William Bush before becoming a Bateman’s pub in the early part of the 20th Century.

  Not your average regular

  I am also shown a 1920s picture of an elephant outside the pub with landlord John Emmerson in the background. A little digging reveals the elephant was called Rosie, loaned to Skegness amusement park for the holiday season by a menagerie owner. (Why the animal visited the Bricklayers Arms is anyone’s guess). A few months after this photograph was taken, Rosie refused to be loaded on a train bound for Mexborough by her trainer and railway officials. Several nights and three attempts later, Rosie eventually departed but not before national newspapers picked up the story; The Scotsman ran with the headline: ‘Obstinate Elephant. Skegness Station Comedy.’

  
  

• Hildred's Hotel, Skegness

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  Last week I was joined by my colleague Ian Marshman in Skegness. We were there to promote the project at Hildred’s shopping centre. As some might know, the centre takes its name from the Hotel that once stood on the same site before it was demolished in 1987.

  Two hundred years ago, Hildred’s was known as the New Inn or New Hotel, welcoming Georgian travellers to Skegness. The name (before it changed to Hildred’s) helped distinguish the business from the older Vine Inn further down the coast in what was then just a tiny village.

  Between 1808-1828, the hotel was run by Mr. Thomas Melson. He offered board and lodging at one guinea per week (not including tea in the afternoon) and a ‘warm sea bath at any hour of the day in addition to a ‘convenient, safe caravan for bathing at all times of tide’.

  For over 100 years, the hotel enjoyed an unparalleled reputation. The rooms were ‘luxuriously furnished’, and the dining and drawing room considered ‘the finest on the Lincolnshire Coast’.

  

  In 1828, Joseph Hildred bought the New Inn. Hildred learnt the innkeeping trade from his uncle, John Stafford, who ran the rival Vine Hotel. Until the railway arrived, it was very difficult for travellers to reach Skegness, and visitors tended to be wealthier people. Joseph Hildred began running a daily carriage between his hotel and the Peacock Inn at Boston, connecting stagecoaches from London and the Midland towns to boost trade.

  In 1850, when Joseph died, his wife Sarah and son Charles Hildred took over. As the resort grew, more and more hotels were built, so they called theirs Hildred’s. Charles was one of the local businessmen who helped build the pier in 1877. Charles applied for a licence to sell wines in the fashionable new Pier Pavilion when it opened. An old photograph shows the hotel with visitors making their way to and from the pier.

  In 1899, Hildred’s Hotel was purchased by the world’s largest brewer, Bass of Burton on Trent. Keen to invest in the booming resort, Bass rebuilt and expanded the hotel in a grander neoclassical style. Many people still remember this building as it stood until 1987 when the shopping centre was created.

  

  A photograph of the hotel’s demolition (note the wrecking ball in full swing), shows some architectural detail of the main facade, a mixture of classical motifs and Victorian invention. During our visit, we are told of a young female ghost roaming the stockroom in one shop, and elsewhere staff complain of an eerie presence within the store. The ghost is believed to be Eva May Saxby of Harby, a barmaid who fell to her death cleaning one of the hotel’s chandeliers.

  If you believe in the supernatural, the strange presence in the other store might be connected to a sailboat named The Shannon that capsized with the loss of 28 passengers in 1893. No prizes for where the corpses were temporarily stored – the hotel!

• Red Cow, Fishtoft

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  The Red Cow replaced an earlier 18th Century house with a yard and orchard. In 1709, William Blanchard owned the site, but no further information was available. Following the Beer Act of 1830, the Red Cow was established as a beerhouse by farmer William Westmoreland complementing the existing butcher's shop and outbuildings.

  In 1845, the Red Cow was under George Fletcher, and a wheelwrights (carpenters) replaced the butcher's shop. Fletcher ran the pub and associated businesses until 1898 when David Searby took on the licence. A few years later, Searby was up in Boston Bankruptcy Court with debts of £400, around £50,000 in today's money. Searby, a carpenter by trade, was accused of neglecting his profession and devoting his time 'exclusively' to his other business as a licensee. Alas for all concerned, Searby was often drunk.

  The Red Cow continued to share its space with a carpenter until the 1940s. I am lucky enough to meet the landlords, Tracy and Andy, who are only too happy to show me around and share what they know about the place.

  Tracy tells me that one regular who is 96 years old remembers the front bar (see picture) as a carpenter's shop. Coffins were made and stored in the pub with locals drinking next to them! The pub interior is a mixture of original features such as the brick fireplaces and later 20th Century alterations, such as the bar counter. The service area extends from the front bar in a loose L-shape design, accessible from either end.

  Most locals are sitting by tables rather than at the bar, making it easier to notice the counter angled inwards at the lower level. It is a simple yet effective design to help maintain and reduce damage by customer's footwear and found in many public bars and modish saloons from the 1930s onwards.