What! No Garibaldi?

October had arrived. It was that time of year again. The time of year when, of late, Mrs Bygone Boozer and I decamp to Lincolnshire for a couple of weeks to do a bit of sheep-sitting whilst our friends fly off to find a bit of sun. This year, I can't help but wonder whether we had more sun than they did in Madeira, but I digress.

Having parked our bikes in the living room, distributed our clothing in random piles around our bedroom and waved our friends goodbye we set off for the metropolis that is Horncastle to see what sort of fare Mr Tesco could offer us. There were a few bottles of localish brews which I don't see in Derbyshire, a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc of sufficient quality to keep Mrs BB happy, but the biscuit aisle was a bit of a letdown. There were Ginger Nuts, Bourbons, chocolate Hobnobs, numerous varieties of Fox's creams but not a Garibaldi in sight. No Garibaldi! What a disaster! What was I to have with my Italian blend Americano? I'd just have to make do with McVitie's fruit shortcakes instead.

Victuals acquired, it was time to return to check on our ovine charges, whose biscuit of choice is the fig roll. Not that they've seen many of late as it is deemed that they have – errrr, putting it politely – bulked up a bit recently. With Josh and Jess looking like prop forwards of the sheep world, the three of them could easily be the front row for the Baaaaabarians.

Jess, Josh and Woody prefer fig rolls.

Now, it's not just me who could've been coming out with"What! No Garibaldi?" The good citizens of Horncastle could be joining me, for this private house sitting at 56 Prospect Street used to be a public one.

The former Garibaldi Inn in November 2026.

The little plate on the wall seems quite certain about the name and the founding date of this bygone...

Sorry, but I have to question this.

...and whilst I'll happily agree with the name, as the Garibaldi Inn is quoted as being at 56 Prospect Street in numerous documents, the date I might question. White's 1856 directory gives a beerhouse on Prospect Street with a George Sparling in residence, but this may very well not have been the Garibaldi. However, a Garibaldi Inn gets a mention in the 1861 census which lists William Marriott and family at the named pub, although it is placed not on Prospect Street but on Blind Lane.

Extract from the 1861 census.

In spite of this I'm pretty convinced that it could well be the same pub, as ten years later William and family are still at a Garibaldi Inn, this time on Prospect Street as expected, and a number of the families listed around him in 1861 were still around him in 1871. I can't believe that they all moved together from one road to another, with the Marriotts flitting between a pair of identically named boozers.

Extract from the 1871 census for Prospect Street.

William supplemented his income from the beerhouse by working as a horse breaker, but it seems that it wasn't always the horses which were broken if this piece in the Horncastle News of 7th September 1889 is anything to go by.

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William remained at the Garibaldi helped, no doubt, by his daughters...

Extract from the 1891 census.

...who after his death, in the latter part of 1896, briefly took on the licence. It was transferred the following year to former police sergeant William Clark, who seems to have moved from the now bygone Alma Inn in South Street, as was reported in the Lincolnshire Chronicle on 22nd October.

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William Clark, along with wife Henrietta and children Walter and Edith, was still there in 1901...

Extract from the 1901 census.

...but a couple of things had happened by the time of the next head count. The Garibaldi was sold by Phoenix Brewery for £250 in 1908 and William had retired and moved a little bit further along Prospect Street, allowing the Garibaldi to be run by George and Matilda Parker.

Extract from the 1911 census.

George was also bringing in the pennies by working as a drayman in the town for Bellamy Brothers, so I presume that they owned the Garibaldi at the time. (I can't hear the phrase Bellamy Brothers without being taken back to the summer of '76 and singing the words to Let Your Love Flow in my head. Too young to have heard it? Click here!)

George was at the Garibaldi for over a quarter of a century and during that time he experienced his fair share of grief. In 1915, his son Frank was killed at Gallipoli. In 1934 Matilda died and the following year his son-in-law, who was living at the pub, committed suicide by shooting himself at work, just two months after his marriage to George's daughter Alice. To round off this morbid collection of events, on the morning of Wednesday 16th February 1938 George himself died, suddenly and unexpectedly, at the Garibaldi.

The Garibaldi Inn, reputedly taken in the 1930s.

A couple of mnths after George's demise Gladys Blades became licensee and, with husband Bert, ran the place until 1951 when the licence was transferred once more. This time to Arthur Willans, another retired police sergeant, from Nottingham. It was during his tenure that the Garibaldi acquired a full licence and was promoted from being a beerhouse to a fully-fledged pub.

In May 1953, the local press reported that Arthur was returning to Nottingham because of his ill-health and that the Garibaldi was taken on by Charles Francis who stayed there, pulling the pints, for eight years.

After Charles came Barbara and Jack Hammond who advertised that they sold Hewitt's ales as well as brews from Sergeant's, who Grimsby brewers Hewitt Brothers had acquired in 1945, and Watney's. Quite how Watney's got a look in I'm not sure. They were only there for a couple of years before being replaced by the Garibaldi's final tenants, Joy and Ted Ringrose. Ted was a competent darts player, winning the Horncastle and District Darts League knock-out competition in May 1966, shortly before the Garibaldi closed. The Ringroses went off to the Sloop Inn in Lincoln and in the October the Louth Standard contained an advert from estate agents Woodroffe Walter and Son for the sale of "...a large dwelling-house with ample accommodation, yard and buildings..." for under £3000. Yes, that was the Garibaldi. Having just moved to the Sloop from the Garibaldi, Joy and Ted found that it was to close the following year. For them, that probably took the biscuit!

The newspaper images are courtesy of the British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk).

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