The Windmill Inn
 |
| The Windmill Inn, Sparrow Hill, Loughborough |
Last week, having showed you some of Canterbury’s impressive
old buildings, and mentioned the
cruck-frame building in Loughborough on Church
Gate where Irish is now, I promised you I’d investigate some of Loughborough’s
oldest timer-framed buildings. So, here goes!
 |
| The Baker's |
Down on Sparrow Hill, next to the right of the Parish
Church, and to the left of what used to be Merrin’s the bakers, you’ll see a
pub claiming to be “The oldest pub in Loughborough”.
 |
| The back of The Three Nuns |
I think there’s a battle
going on between The Windmill Inn and The Three Nuns, on Church Gate, to lay
claim to the title, but I’m really not sure who wins! According to that expert, and dear friend,
Bill, the Windmill was opened pre-1600, and the Three Nuns pre-1666, so
whatever, it’s a pretty close call!
 |
| The front of The Three Nuns |
Another friend of mine has been upstairs in The Windmill Inn
and has dated the timber used in the cruck-frame to the 15
th
century, and on these timbers you can still see the
carpenter’s marks. The
Leicestershire traveller, John Throsby, included in the record of his travels,
an engraving of a romanticised view of the Parish Church, viewed from the
meadow [presumably the Big or Nether Meadow, now one of the
Coronation Meadows], with a windmill [his engraving
showed a Midlands Post-mill] in the foreground. This engraving appeared around
1789, although I’m convinced I’ve seen it in one of my books with an earlier
date, but, of course, I can’t find it now!
 |
| The Windmill from the side |
No matter, I think it’s pretty obvious from the date of the
timbers, and the view from the side and the back that this building is as old
as we think it is. We are pretty sure that there was a farm in this area, many,
many years ago, so I shouldn’t be surprised if this pub were not one of the
farm buildings themselves, probably not the farmhouse, but possibly one of the
outbuildings.
 |
| The Windmill from the back |
The pub has a wonderful history, and has been a meeting
place for a variety of interesting clubs, including the
United Order of Druids
in 1837 (perhaps the
Druid’s Arms down on Pinfold Gate was shut that particular
evening!), the Buttonhole Club (who also used the Blackamoor’s Head in Market
Place as a meeting place for a while) and the
Royal Antediluvian Order ofBuffaloes. It may also he haunted by a lady in grey.
I can tell you who a few of the owners and landlords have
been over the years, but not all, and certainly not since 1989:
Pre-1830 – Charles Limb
c. 1830 – c.1859
John Cleever/Cleaver (may have been the owner of the property rather than the
landlord of the pub itself)
c. 1849 – Christopher Cleever
c. 1861 – Matthew Stafford
c. 1866 – Robert Speed
c. 1872 – owned by Mr North
c. 1883 - 1895 Benjamin Sharp & Mrs E. Sharp
c. 1895 – Alfred H. Ellis
c. 1899 – Luke Birkin
c. 1904 – Mr Dowding
Pre-1928- c. 1960 – Everard Hickinbottom, and Mrs M. A.
Hickinbottom
1960 -1975 Peter and Doreen Heath
1975 – 1989 Doreen Heath
My own connection with the pub goes back to the late ‘70s,
early ‘80s when we used to go down every Wednesday lunchtime for a cheese cob
and a game of darts. The landlady at the time was Doreen Heath, and,
coincidentally, her barmaid was also called Doreen. And one of those spooky
coincidences is that while I was starting to write this article, a picture of
Doreen popped up onto my facebook page, as someone was posting pictures of pub
landlords/ladies! The local paper, The Loughborough Echo, referred to Doreen as
one of Loughborough’s most colourful and respected characters.
I admit, I haven’t been in for many, many years, but the
memories remain, and an affection for the place has been re-ignited by
researching into its history.
 |
| Yours truly outside The Windmill Inn |
