In my last post about the lost Mason's Arms in Midway I mentioned that I'd had to cancel my flu vaccination at the doctor's as a result of coming down once again with Covid. Mrs Bygone Boozer had an appointment for hers at the pharmacy in Tideswell and, luckily, I managed to get one there just fifteen minutes later. So on a Monday morning we were up bright and early and ready to set off. In all honesty we were up far too bright and early as our body clocks still hadn't adjusted to the clocks going back an hour the previous day.
Mrs Bygone Boozer had pedalled through Tideswell on her own in the summer when I was suffering with one of my myriad malaises, but I hadn't been to the village for quite a while. Probably not for more than a decade. Too many tourists in the summer and too cold, wet and windy in the winter, but now was my chance to grab a few photos of some bygone boozers whose number is nearly as large as that of my current medical woes.
After presenting our left shoulders to the needle-bearing gentleman we made our way back to the car and I didn't take a picture of the subject of this post. I didn't take one because it no longer exists.
The King's Head used to stand at the southwestern end of Commercial Street, close to the village's church. Marked with the blue pointy thing, it wasn't far from the location of our appointments with pointy things, which took place where the orange pointy thing is.
In existence from at least 1829...
...and probably from quite a bit earlier, this inn and posting house was run by William Dakin for over twenty years in the middle of the nineteenth century. He was certainly there, with wife Hannah, at the time of the 1841 census,...
...when the Post Office directory was published at the end of the decade...
...and he was still there with his new wife, Martha, in 1861.
He continued in residence until his death in 1863. Derbyshire Records Office has a number of papers from Bakewell solicitors, Messrs Brooke Taylor, and amongst them is this reference to the pub.
Draft conveyance by (1) Catherine Margaritha Brittlebank of Winster, widow; to (2) Thomas Hallam of Chapel en le Frith, innkeeper and draper, and Thomas Dakin of Millers Dale, in the Parish of Tideswell, miller, being the trustees under the will of William Dakin deceased; - of property situate at Tideswell: the King's Head Inn, occupied by William Dakin, and three adjacent cottages occupied by Nancy Sutton, David Bramwell, and Robert Turner, all situate at the Church Stile, six stalls in the Market Place, Blackwell Green Field, being nearly one acre, occupied by Robert Turner, and Edge Rake Field, nearly one acre, occupied by Septimus Robinson, in consideration of the sums of £286 2s 10d and £90 0s 0d 9 Feb 1867
If William Dakin managed a couple of decades at the King's Head, his occupancy is really put into the shade by Thomas Needham. We've met a couple of Needham's before, in this post which featured the Bull i' th' Thorn and the Plough Inn, and now we meet another.
Thomas Needham had taken over the running of the King's Head by 1871...
...and he still ran the place in1911...
...which is from around when the photograph below dates.
I've been informed by Peter Lister that the two ladies standing outside are his great great aunt, Rose Langham, the cook/housekeeper and his grandmother, Maud Smith, both of them living in the pub at census time. Thomas continued in the King's Head until he died in 1922 which means that he was the landlord there for over half a century.
In the mid-twentieth century, with traffic levels passing through the village increasing, it was deemed necessary to widen Commercial Road. This involved the demolition of the King's Head. The view today looks like this. The inn would've stood where the orange car is parked.
Shortly after being stabbed in my left arm I had a similar experience in my right, so that's both flu and Covid jabs over for this year. Just as well, for judging by how I respond to catching either I certainly need 'em.
The Ordnance Survey map extract has been reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland under the terms of this licence.
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