A Harty Post: Two For The Price Of One!
- Stewart
- 3 hours ago
- 7 min read
I admit it. I was wrong!
In my previous post featuring Christmas Winn, I implied that that would be my final offering before the festive fun, but here's another one. Well, it's been so wet that I have wimped out of doing any pedalling and have spent my time delving into directories instead.
In that post, about the Greyhound Inn in Sculthorpe, I mentioned that I'd had a couple of recent trips away. One to Sweden and another to Lincolnshire. The former resulted in my introduction to a brew which I'd never come across before and will probably make an appearance in some future post whilst the latter reintroduced me to Woody and his ovine companions, which my three regular readers will remember meeting for the first time in my post about the lost Sun Inn in Darlton. Yes, Mrs Bygone Boozer and I were back in Lincolnshire to perform sheep-sitting duties once again.
I've had this pair of images from Raphael Tuck postcards of Frithville hanging around on my hard drive for a while now and thought that this would be a good opportunity to cycle out to have a look at its White Hart. That is, as soon as Storm Claudia, together with her accompanying rain, had left the scene.
The route didn't tax our climbing abilities, the 35 mile round trip had just 513 feet of ascent. It made a pleasant change from our usual forays in the Peak District in that we could bowl along, rarely having to change gear.
Naturally, when we arrived at the megalopolis that is Frithville, we found the White Hart to be deceased. This is hardly surprising. Why else would it be appearing in a post?
In case there were to be any doubt that this was a bygone boozer, the building might not wear its heart on its sleeve but it does wear its hart on its wall.
It hasn't been the easiest of tasks to dig for details about this former hostelry. Firstly, there's not a lot to Frithville today, let alone two centuries ago. The earliest of directories didn't feature the place at all and some of the later ones just lumped it in with Boston. Censuses were no better with its enumeration district sometimes being included as part of Frithville, sometimes Sibsey and, on occasion, even a part of Boston. The earliest that I've been able to track it back to is 1842 when, according to White's directory, John Boothby was in residence at the White Hart at Mount Pleasant. Oh yes, that's another place where it is named as being situated. As is West Fen.
The previous year the census recorded a Joseph Boothby as a publican at an unnamed establishment on West Fen.
Were they the same establishment? The same person? There was a beerhouse not a million miles away called The Ship – watch this space – so perhaps Joseph was there in 1841, or maybe White's simply got his name wrong the following year as a Joseph is recorded as being at the White Hart in their 1856 edition.
There are some records of both a John and a Joseph Boothby living in and around Frithville at the time, and they hint that they may possibly have been brothers, but it is Joseph who's still at the pub in 1861.
Brothers or not, the Boothby's tenure has come to an end by the time of the next census when William Reeson, along with his family, is recorded as being at the White Hart Inn...
...just as he was the following year when White's came around once again.
Kelly & Co., William White's competitor in the directory stakes, sent someone to plod around the area and in 1876 published the result which showed that the Reesons had moved on and John Maddison had moved in.
Was Mister Maddison still there when the enumerator called in 1881? It doesn't look like it as it appears that he's moved to the road where the aforementioned Ship used to be, but I've no idea who was in the White Hart. It's not mentioned by name and nobody is referred to as a publican or similar in the census entries.
If I don't know who was at the White Hart in 1881, I certainly know who was there a decade later. It was George Armstrong...
...who was still there in 1921.
George died in 1925 and in the following year Kelly's have daughter Maud running the place, although they did get her marital status wrong.
Maud was still running the White Hart when the 1939 Register was put together and she eventually died in 1949. The White Hart went on until around 1992 when this single roomed pub, which seemingly served just bottled beers, eventually closed its doors. Today it is in residential use. To finish, as there is a 'now' image of the first postcard further up the page, here's a 'now' shot of the second.
But we're not finished yet, for we'd passed another bygone White Hart earlier in the week, or at least the site where it used to sit.
Upon arrival in Lincolnshire Mrs Bygone Boozer discovered that she had forgotten to pack a drinks bottle so, with the temperature being around that usually experienced in Derbyshire in mid-July, we thought that it might be prudent to acquire one from somewhere, and the nearest place that had a bike shop was Horncastle. Our first port of call was to Pedal and Paws, a bike and dog-friendly café, where we supped our Americano and cappuccino under an assortment of bikes of Damacles.
On leaving, re-caffeinated, we turned left along High Street, then onto Bridge Street to Greenan Cycles, at number twenty-three. Their shop is housed in the old warehouse on the extreme left of this image...
...where we managed to purchase the necessary.
On doing so, we passed the site of the former White Hart...
...which had been serving the thirsty of Horncastle since at least 1826 when White's directory records Ann Johnson as being there.
She was still there when one of White's competitors passed by three years later...
...but by the time of the first national census in 1841 she'd been replaced by one Thomas Lill.
Thomas was still at the White Hart when he died in the autumn of 1848 when his widow, Jane, took over the running of the inn, despite what Kelly's managed to get into print for the following year's Post Office directory.
What Kelly's couldn't get right, Slater's could the next year...
and Jane appeared in all directory entries and censuses right up to the head count of 1871.
By the time of the next one, after over three decades of being at the White Hart, Jane had retired and Thomas Armstrong was in residence...
...and, then, with each new census came a new name. Charles Highway in 1891...
...and Harriett Stothard in 1901.
Harriett had the decency to hang around for the next one...
...and was still at the White Hart Inn when Messrs. Kelly came a-calling two years later...
...but had moved on by the time their representative came back in 1919. The Hill family ran a number of the town's hostelries for a while. Dad Charles had the King's Head, daughter Rose managed the Bull whilst son John was mine host in the White Hart.
Kelly's 1926 edition shows John to still be in the White Hart, but Rose had moved to take over the Red Lion after her father's death three years earlier.
In 1930, Albert Leversedge was pulling the pints...
...but by 1939, naval pensioner Herbert Lea was living there with his wife Sophia. It's around here that the history of the White Hart comes to a close, for in 1940 the pub was destroyed by fire. As you may have noticed further up the page, the site is now occupied by a couple of post-war commercial units.
I know I've said it before, but this is definitely the final post before the midwinterfest arrives. Do have a good one, one and all.
The Ordnance Survey map extract is copyright and has been reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland under the terms of this CC BY licence.
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