On a recent trip to Melton Mowbray I was told a story about the origin of one particular Melton Mowbray pub name, and this intrigued me, as I had written about our own Generous Briton in my book ‘Loughborough Pubs’, which was published back in 2023.
Our own pub seems to have been around since the early eighteen hundreds, and when it was auctioned in 1875, it was described as consisting of “a bar, parlour, taproom and kitchen, along with several bedrooms, good cellarage and brewhouse, and outside was excellent stabling with granary above.” The building we see today, on the corner of Ashby Road and Regent Street is a new one, built in 1937 to replace the much older building. Since that time, the GB has had a number of refurbishments, and been included in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide, as well as at one time being celebrated for its historic interior. Here is the building photographed from Ashby Road in 2021, and from Regent Street in 2013.
So, what of the name, the Generous Briton? According to a website about Nottinghamshire villages, the name is used in an ironic way, and is supposed to have come from a poem called “The British Prison Ship”, written as long ago as 1780, by Philip Freneau. Freneau was known as being the poet of the American Revolution, and the poem was written as a result of his experience being held captive by the British on a prison ship. This was during the American War of Independence, when Americans were captured and held on overly hot ships, without much access to fresh food or water, so the death rate was very high. The idea of the “Generous Briton” is therefore in contradiction to what the prisoners actually experienced.
As well as the intriguing origin of the name, it was also suggested to me on my visit to Melton Mowbray, that there were only three pubs bearing this name in the country, and all of them being in Leicestershire! Here's Melton Mowbray's pub during renovation works in 2023.
Well, I just had to check that out! So, as well as Loughborough’s GB, there is a GB in Costock, although I’m not sure whether or not this is still open; there is also a thriving one in Melton Mowbray on King Street, and there is one on the High Street in Brant Broughton in Lincolnshire, although again, I’m not sure if it’s still a pub. The GB which was at No.12 Lombard Street Newark hasn’t been a pub for many years, and the latest picture I could find of it was taken in 2001. It has since been renamed as Clinton House, and has been an insurance agent, to let as shops and offices, and currently subject to a planning permission to become flats.
Why there are only a handful of pubs with the GB name, and why most of those remaining are in Leicestershire I have no idea!
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