Photo above, looking from Vaughn Way. The corner brickwork building is the Pineapple. The Welcome Inn is bottom of the street centre. Changed names from the Generous Heart sometime during the 1850s.
Known as the Generous Heart as early as circa 1827.
R. Osborne kept the Generous Heart, early 1830s. By 1838, Mr. Calvert was running the Inn when he was named as the victim in a violent assault refusing to serve some men.
A strange case occurred in 1840 when Joe Carrington, who was drinking in the Generous Heart, sent out his apprentice to buy some arsenic, apparently ’for rat killing’. Having obtained the poison, Carrington left the pub for a few minutes, only to return to say his goodbyes to everyone as he had taken the arsenic. White powder could be seen around his mouth and a surgeon was called for who attempted to pump his stomach. Joseph died in agony, not before claiming he did it as he ‘couldn’t get on in life.’ Verdict: suicide whilst temporarily insane.
Licensees that followed included: circa 1840, M. Wild. 1842, John Stewart. 1843, George Wappham or Waffom, circa 1845. Sam Stacey and in the same year, Henry Bond.
During 1849, Bond was prosecuted for opening on a Sunday and within a month or so Bond tried to transfer the licence to James Overton, which was refused. The following week he tried again to James Townsend but this too was turned down as Townsend had been convicted for assault on the police. Bond was finally given permission to transfer his licence to William Goodwin the same month. Goodwin was followed by Oliver Heggs, John Cox and John Popple.
The Generous Heart was then put up for sale in 1852. James Grundy was followed by Thomas Hoskins.
By 1855, the pub was owed by the Barratt family, around this time the pub name change occurred the Welcome Inn. 1860, saw the pub joined to the main sewer. Unfortunately William Major, who was digging the trench, failed to put any stretchers across the trench. He was fifteen feet down when a side collapsed and a couple of tons of earth fell on top of him, killing him.
In January 1870, a fire broke out when, after turning the gas off at the meter, they failed to turn off some taps in the rooms. This resulted in the escaping gas igniting when a light was bought in. Much furniture was ruined and to make it worse, there was no insurance.
Later that year, William Barratt was taken to court for being open on Sunday. He claimed the men drinking were working for him looking after his cows. The clerk ordered him to move the cow shed away from the pub. In December 1870, Barratt put the pub up for sale – complete with Cow Sheds.
James Coulson held the licence for a year before transferring it to John Woolman. Sarah Woolman then held the licence until she remarried and transferred to Arthur Riley, her husband. 1883, Riley to Walter Creasy, circa 1886, Thomas Buckley. He was charged with bankruptcy, failed to turn up at court and so was jailed. In October 1887, Oliver Wilson took over whilst Buckley’s dispute with the bankruptcy court took place.
In July 1888, the Welcome Inn was sold off with for £1785, Wilson still in occupation. He was followed by Sam and Martha Hopkins, who died in March 1894. Charles Robins was quickly followed by William Mossender in 1894. In November that year Mossender, with his wife Florence, had to leave the Welcome Inn as the business was sold. As they left the inn William walked off, leaving Florence standing. A couple of years later she eventually took William to court under the new Married Women’s Act, citing desertion and claimed compensation. William, who was now running another pub, claimed he left her as she was a drunkard and had been having an affair with a Mr. Gooch under his nose when at the Welcome Inn. Florence had been rather too welcoming, resulting in her having Gooch’s baby and former customers were called who testified that they witnessed Florence having a ‘high old time’ with Gooch in outbuildings on various occasions. Due to this fact the court found in William’s favour and dismissed the case.
Around this time it seems Robinsons Brewery of Burton had bought the building, who in turn were taken over by Ind Coope.
William Judkin followed the Mossenders. Up to just before World War II, were John Bannister, Thomas Ashley, Fred Drury, George Spiers, Fred Turner, John Thompson and George Hampson.
Similar picture to the first. An evocative scene from the 1950s with Welcome Inn extreme right, facing towards the camera.