Photo above: Looking down Noble Street 1973, (sometimes the address was given as 46 Noble Street).photo L R O
Stood on the corner of Dannett Street/46 Noble Street, later no. 62.
Listed as Dannetts Hall or Dannetts Hall Tavern, referring to the old mansion that stood on the site, which was sold off and demolished for the area development 1860s.
The Hall and grounds were sold off in 1861 to the Leicester Freehold Land Society by Dr. Joseph Noble, hence Noble Street and Dannett Street.
A Beer house that only gained its full licence on the 5th of April 1948.
Its first licensee seems to be James Dimmock c 1864 followed by Job Jackson and George Strong in 1870. George was before the beak in 1872 in what was described as a very bad case of serving unlawful hours. The police kept watch whilst George’s sons let groups in around the back before fastening the door behind them. His sons would again wait in the street and do the same when people wanted to enter the Dannett. Finally the police entered to find the men all drinking at the bar, George was fined £5.
Sarah Jackson followed George circa 1874. In 1881, Sarah Jackson, a widow aged forty five, married James Sparkes aged fifty six. James took on the licence, but died in 1887 so Sarah – now Sarah Sparkes – took over again. Sarah was at the Dannett Tavern until around 1907, when she died.
Lizzie ran the Dannett with son Herbert after mum Sarah’s death in 1907 until 1934, when she died there aged seventy-five, having lived most of her life at the Dannett. By then Lizzie, had took on the name Lizzie Glover, having married again. Sarah and her daughter Lizzie ran the Dannett for over sixty years.
Sarah Jackson at the Dannett with her two daughters 1881. She married James Sparkes later that year.
The census return for 1891 at the Dannett. Sarah with her daughter Lizzie who has given the name Sparkes but had married Fred Coleman in 1881. Herbert is Lizzie & Fred’s son.
I spent a lot of time down here as a boy in the 1950s. My father, Cyril Lount, lived as a young boy at no. 50 Noble Street in 1909 and a lot of the family still lived around here, in Noble Street, Clara Street, Flora Street and King Richard’s Road.
Barry Lount
