Photo above: The original Old Castle Inn , (with Rupert’s Gateway to the left), owned by the Duchy of Lancaster, brewed its own ale until Brunt Bucknell & Co. took over around the turn of the century. Bass were to swallow up Brunt Buknell. Everards eventually took over and they closed and rebuilt the pub circa 1928. Rupert’s gateway named after Prince Rupert who led the siege of Leicester during the civil war 1645. He smashed the walls with cannon on receiving a no surrender reply from the town.
The 1822 directory names the inn as the Leicester Castle, but most others refer to the Castle or Old Castle. Early landlords from 1815, included Thomas Martin, John Sarson, Daniel Christian, John Nokes and Thomas Hoskins.
John Nokes enters the Castle Inn 1840 or as Nokes records it Castle Mount
From 1855, the magistrates’ records name William Eldred. 1864, Thomas Addison. 1865, Elizabeth Stevenson. 1882, Benjamin Walker. 1885, John Pratt, also 1885, Charles Pilgrim. 1894, John Dean. 1898, James Beaumont. 1901, James Holshaw. 1904, Fred Smith. 1907, Harry Townsend and later that year also William Johnson. 1909, Charles Wheatley. 1911, George Fisher. 1912, Charles Wheatley again. 1930, William Mawby.
From here JRs records: 1938, Fred Letts. 1941, Earnest Springthorpe. 1947, John Jones. 1951, Ralph Ward and 1957, Fred Hemns.
Ralph Ward, who ran the Castle from 1951-7 was a local boy (Oadby),who represented England schoolboys at soccer. He signed on Leicester City’s books in 1928, but soon moved to Bradford, then on to Tottenham Hotspurs in 1936, where he stayed until after the war.
In December 1964, a young barman, twenty-eight year old William Forbes, was killed when a keg of beer he was changing in the cellar exploded. He was only looking after the pub whilst the landlord was out at the cinema for the night.
The Castle closed as a pub on the 17th of September 1968. It was then used for a couple of decades by the Justices Licensing for their administration until they moved to Pocklingtons Walk circa 1990. The building is now used as offices. The cottages next door became a pub (see next post).
I well remember the close and intimate atmosphere of this tiny pub. I was 17 at the time of the keg explosion, and remember the rumour that went around that the landlord had somehow fallen through the trapdoor into the cellar below and had died from his injuries. One of many memories of a miss-spent youth!
Thanks for that George, I did take a photo of the interior tiny corner bar, but struggling to find at mo, if it turns up i will edit it in. Cheers