These snaps of historic Northampton pubs have been dug up from the archives by local historian Dave Knibb
So many fondly-remembered Northampton pubs have shut their doors over the years but are still in the memories of their customers.
These photos - researched by Dave Knibb, the author of 'Last Orders: A History and Directory of Northampton Pubs' - show some of Northampton's historic stomping grounds.
Dave's self-published book has sold more than 2,000 copies. Call 07939990790 or email [email protected] to buy a copy.
Click through our gallery to read Dave’s fascinating historical insights.
Dave's self-published book has sold more than 2,000 copies. Call 07939990790 or email [email protected] to buy a copy.
9. The County Tavern in Abington Avenue
Northants County Cricket Club, after a few previous attempts was officially formed in 1878, and after being granted ad hoc licences for selling alcohol depending on fixtures, decided to build its own purpose built hotel in 1893. Opening in 1895, its chimney stack blew down and fell through the roof during high winds within a couple of months, hardly the best of starts. The Club soon realised they had made another mistake. As they had previously applied for ‘six day licencing’ agreements in the past, that’s what they had applied for when they were building the Hotel so no alcohol could be served on a Sunday. Now called the County Tavern, it has had an uncertain future in recent times, being put up for sale in 2015 for £550,000 to raise money for the Cricket Club. Still open at the time of writing, I hope it will be for many years to come. Photo: Dave Knibb
In the 1830’s, George Neill was a shopkeeper in the Market Square near Newland, as time went on, he became a brewer as well as being an agent for many other brewers and the Britannia Life Assurance Company. As business boomed, he moved his brewery to larger premises further up Newland and changed its name to the Newland Brewery. After a while though, he found that some of his out of town customers were too busy on market days to travel up to his new address so trade began to suffer. His solution was to open an outlet on the Square once again which he did in 1854, calling it the Britannia and acquired a beer licence. The pub was on the corner of Osborn’s Jitty and the site was more recently Barclay’s Bank. Photo: Dave Knibb
Apparently, The Vine was around before 1830 and moved next door to 38 Abington Street taking its name with it in that year. James Agar moved his pub into a house owned by James Durham and was granted a 1,000 year lease. A fairly nondescript place, it increased in trade in the 20thCentury as Abington Street became more commercial than residential, though that wasn’t to last. One of its last mentions came in 1953 when an application to have a neon sign on the front was turned down on the basis that it was out of keeping with the area and would also be confusing to traffic, being near the Fish Street traffic lights. It closed in 1957 when the lease still had 873 years to run. Photo: Dave Knibb
As with so many other places, finding opening dates is nigh on impossible. The same applies here, the first mention of the White Hart Inn came in 1718 when it was being run by Richard Bell. Its location (termed as Bridge Street for many years) made it ideal for accommodating traders on their way to market and although not by any means a large building (at the time), it did have decent stabling and storage facilities. The advent of the railways and demise of the coaches made no difference to it, if anything, trade increased as the Bridge Street Railway Station was literally on its doorstep. The railways staff, societies and meetings were centred on the White Hart rather than the nearby Pomfret Arms and Railway Tavern for many years. The 19th Century also saw it hosting an incredible number of inquests (always a good indicator of a hostelry’s standing in the community), the proximity of the River Nene providing so many cases of drowning over the decades, the vast majority being children and most of the adults being linked to suicide. The pub is closing down this weekend (March 19) citing 'spiralling costs' as the main reason for closure. Photo: Dave Knibb