Farewell to the Sportsman.

At the end of last week Ben Stokes announced his retirement from international cricket. Lovers of the game will forever recall exploits like his 135 with the bat in the third Ashes test at Headingley in 2019 and his 6 for 22 with the ball against the West Indies in the final test at Lords two summers previously. Whilst I never played alongside an international cricketer – my zenith being that I was once on the same team as a Minor Counties player – in other sports I have.

Whilst a student, I recall playing in an inter-departmental Sunday football match with later-to-be Rangers and Northern Ireland captain John McClelland before he'd made the big time. He'd been drinking the Belle View in Upper Bangor the previous night, after playing for Bangor City, when one of my teammates, knowing that we were going to be short in number, managed to persuade him to play for us the following afternoon, provided that we didn't tell anyone. We still lost. Also back in the student days, England centre Barrie Corless, on a visit to his home county, turned up at the town's rugby club and we managed to persuade him to turn out for our 2nd XV. I played outside him on the wing. We lost that match too.

We've said goodbye – only in regard to their international playing days, as I believe that they are all still upright and breathing – to the above three sportsmen and my life as a sportsman of a much lesser degree is probably over too. However, I frequently tell myself otherwise and keep my time trial bike under the bed in the spare room, waiting for that day when I do make my comeback. And here's another sportsman that we've lost. I never was able to spend any time in its company for it closed several years before I was born.

The Sportsman's Arms was a beer house in Ormesby St. Michael in Norfolk. Here it is marked on the Ordnance Survey's 1905 25-inch mapping...

Extract from the 25-inch Ordnance Survey 1905 mapping.

...looking like this around that time.

The Sportsman's Arms c1905.

The earliest that I can take the pub back to is 1861 when Jeremiah Shalders is running an unnamed beer house. A process of elimination tells me that it wasn't the other one in the village, the also now defunct Eel's Foot, so it must've been the Sportsman's.

Extract from the 1861 census.

Jeremiah and wife Susanna, this time with an added h, were still there a decade later...

Extract from the 1871 census.

...and after Jeremiah was put into St. Michael's churchyard in the autumn of 1877, Susanna(h) continued at the pub.

Extract from Kelly's 1879 directory.

She joined Jeremiah under St. Michael's turf in March 1881, and a few weeks later that year's census shows one Samuel Richmond in charge of the pub.

Extract from the 1881 census.

Living in the cottage next door was another Samuel Richmond, his father, who happened to be a son of Susanna(h), born before she and Jeremiah got hitched. As we will see, the Sportsman's was run for its entire life by members of the same family.

In 1887, an application was made for a wine licence, and this was granted, as reported in the Yarmouth Gazette on 27th August...

Content provided by THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

...although which Mr. Richmond is being referred to I'm not certain. By the time of the next census, Samuel jnr. had married, moved out and become widowed leaving dad, Samuel snr. in charge of the now named house...

Extract from the 1891 census.

...where he was still to be found a decade later.

Extract from the 1901 census.

After Samuel snr. died, in 1902, Susanna(h)'s younger son William took over the reins...

Extract from Kelly's 1908 directory.

...and may well have been in charge when this postcard was produced.

William died, whilst still at the pub, in 1933, sufficiently early in the year that Kelly's representatives could note the fact in that year's publication.

Extract from Kelly's 1933 directory.

William's widow Harriet took over and following her own death, in 1942, daughter Celia continued in her parents' footsteps.

Here's Celia. It always pleases me when I manage to put a face to a name.

Celia was to be the pub's final licensee. The Sportsman's Arms closed in 1948 and it wasn't for one of the usual reasons. The building was owned by the Great Yarmouth Waterworks Company and leased to Lacon's brewery. The water company wanted to build accommodation to house workers at the nearby water works, but were refused permission. Their only remaining option was to convert the pub into three cottages in which to house its employees.

The former Sportman's Arms in August 2016. © Google 2026

I have to end by saying that yesterday I took my time trial bike out from under the bed in the spare room. No comeback though, as it went straight back where it came from after I'd finished the vacuuming.

Thanks to stanjunemcc for the image of Celia.

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.

The newspaper image is courtesy of the British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk).

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