An Equinox Excursion.
- Stewart
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
How time flies! Yes, it's come round again. The time for the quarterly exploration of pubs in a place that was randomly chosen towards the end of the day of exploring pubs in the previously randomly chosen place.
Former work colleague Eric and I, after consuming our curries on our winter solstice visit to Leek, had decided that our next quarterly exploratory excursion would be to Melton Mowbray. Hospital appointments meant that we couldn't make it on the vernal equinox, but what's a week between friends?
Our first port of call was to The Grapes on the town's Market Place. Once the tap room of the former Swan Inn...
...it provided me with a lovely pint of Shipstone's Mild.
I'm not a regular mild drinker, which is just as well as I rarely see it offered these days, but with it being available I thought that I should at least sample it. Besides it is only 3.5% and this was only our first stop. Eric went for some much more commonly seen golden ale.
From The Grapes it was on to The Crown where we both opted for the draught Bass as we don't see that too often either. Unfortunately, as the barmaid tried to serve us, it just wouldn't behave and so we had to settle for Fuller's London Pride instead. Nothing wrong with that. Quite an acceptable substitute.
Out into the spring sunshine and on to the Half Moon and some Iron Maiden inspired Trooper from Robinsons...
...before moving on to the Anne of Cleves on Burton Street.
The building in which the Anne of Cleves is housed dates back to the mid-fourteenth century and in the mid-sixteenth century was a chantry priest's house. When Henry VIII (we'll meet him again a little bit later) went on a bender against the Catholic Church, the house came into the possession of the crown in 1539. The following year Henry gave the house to Thomas Cromwell in appreciation of his work in the acquisition of church properties and land. Thomas didn't get to spend too many nights in the place, as later that year his head was displayed on a spike on London Bridge.
The Anne of Cleves had a good array of handpumps so it was down to halves. I know my first one was a Tiger. This was my usual brew back in my early days in Derbyshire when my local was an Everard's house and I rarely see it these days.
What brews followed the Tiger, I can't recall, but I do know what followed the brews, because it's the law. It was on to the Spice of India (Soi).
Whilst it's estimated that around three-quarters of the "Indian" restaurants in the UK are actually owned and run by folk of Bangladeshi heritage, especially from the Sylhet region, the Soi is an actual Indian run by those whose heritage is Indian and my Chicken Muglai has to be one of the best curries that I have ever had. If you're ever in Melton and fancy a bit of Indian cuisine, I can't recommend it too highly.
One pub that we didn't visit, for the simple reason that it is no longer standing, was the Marquis of Granby on Sherrard Street.
In existence as a pub in 1829 when Thomas Freeman was recorded there in Pigot's directory...
...the building predated that by a considerable way, with some of the structure possibly having been built in the first part of the twelfth century, and may have been a small priory housing Cluanic monks. This settlement, along with the Priory of Lewes, of which it was a part, and a significant proportion of monastic life elsewhere, came to an end with Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries.
The 1841 census lists Ann Freeling as an innkeeper on Sherrard Street without naming an establishment...
...but she and son Thomas are at the Granby Inn ten years later.
Thomas took over the running of the Granby from his mother and whilst he was in residence evidence from the inn's past life came to light, as reported in the Leicestershire Mercury of 20th August 1859.
I have to admit that I was distracted a little and started digging around to see what I could find out about the departed widow and managed to find a record of a Mary Needham's burial on 12th March 1702 in Melton, but other than they didn't hang around to bury folk back then I discovered nothing.
Thomas Freeling's own demise on 15th December 1862 was reported in the Leicester Chronicle the following Saturday...
Mother Ann had still been living at the Marquis of Granby at the time of the previous year's census. Did she take up the reins again after her son's death? This I don't know, but the inn was sold in 1869 to a Mr. Knight of Leicester for the sum of £680, as reported in the Leicester Chronicle of 27th March.
Our Mr. Knight may have bought the Marquis of Granby, but he wasn't running it a couple of years later, for the 1871 census puts Charles French there. The inn looks as if it is doing quite well as, in addition to the family, there are nineteen lodgers recorded there that night.
The Marquis now seems to have entered a period of having relatively short term landlords. The Post Office directory of 1876 tells us that William Spencer is in residence...
...and just five years later a William Freeman was at home on census night.
The Freeman family were there until 1888...
...but had gone by the time of the next census, three years later, having been replaced by George Mills.
George had left by 1899 when Wright's representative was in town...
...and Daniel Garner had gone by the following year when the new landlord, Edward Cragg, gets a mention in the Melton Mowbray Times of 6th October, for being a superhero.
Here's a photograph of the pub from Edward's time...
...and a record of the family at the Granby.
The Craggs were the final family to live at the Marquis of Granby. Edward's wife Alice is listed in Kelly's 1925 directory...
...and named in this piece in the Melton Mowbray Times of 11th March 1927.
In the end, the Marquis of Granby was deemed to be redundant and closed. The building was demolished in 1936 and if you want a drink in that part of Sherrard Street today you'll have to pop into The Odd Clock Café which now occupies the site.
And finally, for now, the place that was randomly chosen, towards the end of this day of exploring pubs in this randomly chosen place, for our next day of exploring, is Macclesfield. Watch this space, for there are numerous bygone boozers in Macc. Fortunately there are still quite a few in operation.
The newspaper images are courtesy of the British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk).
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