Loughborough pubs as meeting places

Whilst I was writing my latest book, ‘Loughborough Pubs’, I learned so many things not just about the history of individual establishments, but also about licensing, competition, pub management, legislation etc., of which there was far too much to include in the short volume that is now published.

Many of the pubs in Loughborough were the places where inquests into deaths were held, and auctions of land, property, and goods were also held in pubs. In the case of inquests, this would often be the pub nearest to the place where the person had died. Pubs were used for such ‘events’ as they were often the place with the biggest and most accessible rooms, often upstairs. Some of the pubs in which these events took place include the Bellfoundry when it was the Saracen’s Head; Champs, when it was the Unicorn; Fat Sam’s when it was the Mundy Arms; the Royal Oak; the Plough at Thorpe Acre; the Old English Gentleman; the Windmill, and the Bull-in-the-Hollow when it was the Buffalo’s Head.

Royal Oak

Old English Gentleman

The Windmill

Pubs were also often meeting places for various societies. I’ve mentioned the Loughborough Chrysanthemum and Celery shows in an earlier post, in ‘Secret Loughborough’ I wrote about the Freemasons meeting in the Bull’s Head, and the landlord of the Clarence, Henry George Lovett being a member of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes, and in ‘A-Z of Loughborough’ I included an entry on Thomas Glover:

“Born in 1817, Thomas Glover of the White Horse Inn on Bedford Street, owned many residential properties in Loughborough. In 1843 he met with local people to form a friendly society, the aim of which would be to administer relief to its members in times of illness and adversity. Called the Free Shepherds’ Society, it was perhaps based on the existing national Loyal Order of Ancient Shepherds, created in Ashton under Lyne, being an amalgamation of the Royal Shepherds Sanctuary Benefits Society and the Ancient Order of Shepherds.”

Unfortunately, by the time the Loughborough Society was eventually established, in 1881, and was holding its meetings in the Golden Fleece, Thomas Glover had already been dead for 27 years, so never lived to see his initial ideas come to fruition.

Interestingly, while we had a pub called the Druid’s Arms, the United Ancient Order of Druids at one time held their regular meetings at the Windmill, and some anniversary dinners at the Cross Keys, now the Phantom, while the Oddfellows opened a new branch at the Windmill in 1834, and the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes (RAOB), Percy Gale Lodge 944, were still meeting and fundraising here at the end of the twentieth century.

The Phantom, previously the Cross Keys

Meanwhile, the Royal Victoria Lodge of the Order of Druidesses held their inaugural and subsequent meetings in the Mundy Arms but went dancing on the occasion of their twelfth anniversary at the Black Boy pub, now the Blacksmith’s Arms. The Mundy Arms also hosted anniversary dinners of the Ancient Order of Corks, a part of the Freemasons, while a new Lodge of the Ancient Order of Shepherds in connection with the Ancient Order of Foresters was created at the Swan-in-the-Rushes, in 1866.

12 Degrees West, previously the Mundy Arms, now Fat Sam's

The Blacksmiths, previously the Black Boy

Swan-in-the-Rushes

And sadly, that’s all I have time for this week folks! Tune in next week for a bit more about pubs!

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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