A Christmas Win!

It's been weeks and weeks since the last piece of this drivel was launched into the ether. Life's been a bit full of late with more than the usual number of medical things. Those, coupled with trips to Lincolnshire and Sweden, seem to have eaten into my time. During the Lincolnshire trip I pedalled past a couple of bygones which will feature in a future post and whilst there I did try to get a couple of posts up, but neither of the former hostelries in question wanted to readily part with much in the way of detail regarding their respective histories. They've been put into the pending folder where they'll probably remain pending for quite some time.

Currently much of my time seems to be focussed on the coming midwinterfest. Mind you, I'm not actually doing anything about it other than thinking about doing things, and with there being less than three weeks to the fateful day this will undoubtedly be my final offering before its arrival. In previous years I've manufactured posts with a seasonal link, such as the one about the Anchor of Hope in Buxton and here's another with, essentially, the same tenuous connection.

About twenty-five miles west of the former Anchor of Hope lies the village of Sculthorpe, where once, on The Street, could be found the Greyhound Inn. Whilst it was no doubt in existence before 1841, the census of that year gives Wright Kendall as the innkeeper.

Extract from the 1841 census.

OK, it doesn't really as it failed to name the establishment as did the enumerator a decade later...

Extract from the 1851 census.

...but Wright was caught on the 1846 Register of Electors at the Greyhound and I presume that he didn't move around too much.

Extract from the 1846 Register of Electors.

Wright died of a malignant tumour and was buried in churchyard in Sculthorpe on 20th January 1857.

Four years later George Williamson was pouring the pints...

Extract from the 1861 census.

...but by 1864 he'd been replaced by butcher C. Winn.

Extract from Wright's 1864 directory.

Lawrence Harper was at the Red Lion and the Stark(e) family was at the Horse and Groom, so it doesn't take much to work out that butcher C. Winn was at the Greyhound.

C. Winn was still there for the 1881 census when the pub was named. Just what does the C stand for?

Extract from the 1881 census.

It's Christmas!

Christmas Winn was born on 25th December 1833, but by the time he was fifty, he'd given up the innkeeping lark and the Greyhound was, by using the same deductive logic as before – with the Starks still in the Red Lion and Thomas Barnes being at the Horse and Groom – in the care of one Alfred Aldham.

Extract from White's 1883 directory.

Mr. Aldham wasn't there for long and neither was his successor William Grimmer, but Robert John Smith, sometimes John Robert Smith, ran the place for around a decade between 1886...

Extract from the 1891 census.

...and 1896.

Extract from Kelly's 1896 directory.

Five years later, the son of the man listed above Robert in Kelly's directory had taken over the pub...

Extract from the 1901 census.

...and William Charles Sewter was followed at the Greyhound by another William – William Armiger.

Extract from Kelly's 1908 directory.

There may have been a change of landlord but the pub stayed in the family, as William A was married to William S's sister, Florence. William and Florence were still in residence in 1911...

Extract from the 1911 census.

...and for quite a few years after. When William died in 1939, Florence took over the reins until she joined William in the graveyard of Sculthorpe's Blessed Mary and All Saints church ten years later. Their son Clifford then took it on briefly, but the pub's days were numbered.

The Greyhound, probably when in the hands of the Armiger family.

A Morgan's house, when the brewery went into liquidation in 1963 it passed into the hands of Norwich brewers Steward & Patteson and was closed at the end of July 1964. Today the building earns its living as a holiday cottage which does, at least, retain the Greyhound name.

The former Greyhound Inn in 2025. © Google 2025

Having been defeated in my previous couple of attempts at producing a post, this one featuring Christmas Winn must go down as a Christmas win!

I have to admit that much of the heavy lifting for this piece was done by the Norfolk Pubs website.

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