A Hoppy New Year #3.

Way back, in this post about the Britannia in Kegworth, I wrote about even further back. Back when I used to travel to eastern parts to visit Mrs. Bygone Boozer when she was living in odd places like Essex, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. At one point I used to visit her in Market Deeping, where she spent her time in the company of two tabby cats – Squiddley-Diddley and The Other One. No, I've not forgotten its name and inadvertently used upper case letters. It was really called The Other One.

Market Deeping, along with West Deeping to its, errr, west and its two canonised neighbours of Deeping St. James and Deeping St. Nicholas are, rather unsurprisingly, collectively referred to as the Deepings. It'll probably also be unsurprising to discover that back during those days I visited a pub or two in the Deepings. The Deeping Stage (now seemingly simply known as the Stage) and the Bull, located next to each other on Market Deeping's Market Place, are a couple of former coaching inns that spring to mind. I may even have spent a New Year's Eve in one of them, but of that I can't be absolutely certain as Hogmanay memories are become rather fogged with the passage of time. I've seen quite a few of them, after all. However, it's good to see that they are both still operating, but I never had the chance to sup in the subject of this post.

On two previous occasions at this time of year I've produced a "hoppy new year" post. We've had the Hop & Vine in Rainham Mark, and the Hop & Rye in Bromley. This pair of Kentish bygone boozers is now joined by the Hop Pole Inn in Deeping St. Nicholas.

This post didn't take too long to throw together as this beer house seems to have been in the possession of just two families through its lifetime. The earliest that I've been able to track it back to is 1842 when White's recorded John Meadows as a beer retailer in Littleworth Drove. It's worth noting at this point that this is the main road running into Deeping St. Nicholas and that the village was also sometimes referred to as Deeping Fen.

Extract from White's 1842 directory.

The pub wasn't named in this directory, but it was in the census of 1851, when John Meadows was still there.

Extract from the 1851 census.

He was still there in 1856 too...

Extract from White's 1856 directory.

...or was he?

The 1861 census shows John Measures there, but it was John's son.

Extract from the 1861 census,

At what point between the two censuses John junior took over from John senior I don't know, but he was still pouring the pints when the enumerator called once more in 1871...

Extract from the 1871 census.

...and after he died, in 1880, his widow Elizabeth continued to run the Hop Pole into the 1890s.

Extract from the 1891 census.

By the time that the new century turned the Measures had moved on and the Hop Pole was being operated by Charles Stainsby...

Extract from Kelly's 1900 directory.

...and here's a photograph of Charles standing in the pub's doorway.

Charles Stainsby in the doorway of the Hop Pole Inn c1900.

Peering at the pub sign, it looks as if he was being provided with his beer by Home's Brewery in Daybrook, just outside Nottingham.

Looks like it's Home's beers.

Charles continued to run the pub until his death in 1928, when the Hop Pole died with him. His youngest daughter, Meg, continued to live in the property until the 1970s and the building, now known as Hop Pole House, is still in residential use today.

Hop Pole House, the former Hop Pole Inn, in May 2023. © Google 2025

Some time after the Hope Pole's closure, Littleworth Drove became part of the the A16 connecting Peterborough with Grimsby. The A16 has since been rerouted and Littleworth Drove has been downgraded to the A1175. Now, as you drive towards Deeping St. Nicholas you pass through the hamlet of...

...Hop Pole.

Gone, but not forgotten. © Google 2025.

I hope you all have a hoppy new year. I'm starting it off with a Citra from Oakham Ales – full of citrus and tropical hoppiness.

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