BULLS HEAD, Bath St./Belgrave

Bulls Head c.1937, a rebuild across the road. (ES).

In the 1790s George Davenport Leicestershire’s notorious highwayman narrowly escaped capture by shunning up a 10ft wall after drinking in the Bulls Head. Eric Swift tells us in his Leicester Inns publication that the Bulls Head stood on the site of the Jubilee School and the present building is a ‘rebuild’

The Bulls Head was auctioned off in 1841 and again in 1860. The pub brewed its own ale until owned by Robinsons’ Brewery.  The pub was a beer house only until 1953 when it gained a full license.

Picture taken 1994, note the Stacey builder’s advertisement on nearby
wall temporally exposed.

Early licensees:
1890 Thomas Billington
1907 Thomas’s son Oliver Billington, that year Oliver was assaulted by one Joseph Freeman in the Bulls Head, Freeman was found guilty and sentenced to 21 days hard labour.
1918 Agnes Billington

In 1920 Oliver Billington listed a licensee again. He died c1924 in a motor cycle accident, on the road to Melton. He was riding a motor cycle and side car with passengers-the landlady and child of the Blue Lion Thrussington- when hitting the rear of a van his vehicle turned over trapping Oliver Billington, he was rushed to hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, Agnes took over the again.

1927 Thomas Pratt
1929 M Woodfield.

Bulls Head 2023 closed (photo from Jeremy Corbett collection)