My fiftieth post. Yes, I'm sorry! Fifty up, so as tradition dictates let's have a bit of gold. I have to say that a little bit of gold would be a nice change from all the bits of green that I've been ejecting from my lungs over the last three weeks. That vicious virus visitation of nearly four weeks ago certainly seems to be lingering. At least it seems that the daily dose of a gram and a half of amoxicillin has started to deal with its after effects. Hopefully I might manage to get out on some wheels again soon. In the meantime I've been digging into Monyash and have come up with this little nugget.
The Peak District National Park Authority's conservation area appraisal for the village, in paragraph 3.17, cites The Making of a Derbyshire Village - Johnston & Johnston (2010) as stating that in 1579 Monyash had four pubs. Only one remains today - The Bull's Head. The other three must therefore be bygone boozers and one of those was the Golden Lion on Church Street.
The aforementioned appraisal document also implies that the Golden Lion was one of those in existence in the village in 1579. Does it really date from so far back? I don't know. The earliest record that I have found so far is in the 1857 White's directory when one Benjamin Mellor is at the Golden Fleece. Was there really was a switch from an aurous ovine to the aureate leonine, or was it just an error? I don't know that either, but four years later the census gives Benjamin as living at the Golden Lion.
And it's the feline form that features in all subsequent sources. Two directory entries with a census return sandwiched between all give a Ralph Gibbs in residence and he's followed in the 1881 census by one Henry Bird. A decade later both the census and Kelly's Directory show that the Bird has flown and been replaced by John Needham. Perhaps he's related to one of the Needhams that featured in this post.
Upon John's death in 1894 his widow, Mary Ann, takes over the reins as confirmed by a couple more editions of Kelly and the 1901 census. By 1911 she's gone and is living with her daughter and Walter Lomas is now mine host. The following year's edition of Kelly has him there too and it's there that my trail ends. There's probably not much more to find anyway as it appears that the pub closed in 1919 and has since been converted into a couple of dwellings. I had snapped the pair of houses which have been produced from the former Golden Lion but for some reason the file fails to load, so I have had to fall back on Mr. Google's archives.
At the time of drafting this piece Lathkill House was on the market and its sale brochure was to be found here. It may still be online should you wish for a sneaky peek inside.
Returning to the twentieth century, I've seen a larger, sharper, copy of the picture below. One in which Walter Lomas's name is discernible as the licensee. The 1911 census gives Walter as having three sons aged 8, 7, and 5 as well as a daughter aged 3 (as well as another son just 6 months old) so this is probably them in the photograph.
So, that's a bit of gold for the fiftieth. I'm struggling to think of a diamond connection for the sixtieth, but we'll see what comes up. Whatever it is, I hope it's not green.