The Georgian Hat & Beaver (a beaver refers to a hat maker’s stand).
The Hat & Beaver had its own brewery and Maltings in the yard, (above) where tenements were also built.
The Hat & Beaver predates 1815 when Richard Spencer was victular, not sure when Richard died but his widow Sarah Spencer who was licensee after Richard of the Hat & Beaver died in 1821 aged 41, she left two public houses that were put up for auction Nov 1821, tantalizing the names of the Pubs were not given.
William Facer licensee seemed to follow the Spencers he was certainly listed in 1824. A court case in 1828 where Margaret 17 and Sararh 20 Yeaomans were charged by Daniel Birtchnall of robbing him of two £10 pounds notes, (a value of £1300 each today) they were all drinking in the Hat & Beaver, Birtchnall accused the sisters of following him home, eventually robbing him, Birtchnall being very drunk gave a convoluted story the the court. The recorder told him his conduct was disgraceful, him being a married man with a family, so refused him any expenses. Sarah Yeomans was convicted after trying to change two £10 pound notes in a drapers shop. She was sentenced to six months in the house of correction. Margaret Yeomans was acquitted.
c 1834 William Henry Loak. James Blake 1836. John Bramley c1843. William Smith c1844 (Smith was fined £2 for having his house open at 3oclock in the morning) . William Trivett c1845-54. Richard Gray c1854. J Gale 1855. Francis Morris 1861.
In 1831, the debtors confined to County Goal opposite forwarded a communication in which they thanked landlord William Facer of the Hat & Beaver for the excellent Christmas dinner he had sent across to the prisoners.
January 1834, saw the suicide of William and Hannah Facer, who together had been at the pub for thirteen years, William was much addicted to drink and, becoming melancholy and incoherent, he finally slashed his own throat with a razor blade. Hannah became deranged and went to live in lodgings. After being presented with William’s will she found that their house had, due to a legal oversight in the will, passed to another. She took a pair of wool shears and cut her own throat.
William Henry Loak followed the Facer’s but he died July 1836, his obituary told of his involvement in the Duke of Rutland’s Band. James Blake was listed as licensee 1836,
Jane Morris owner and licensee 1864. transferred the licence on her marriage to John Burnhope June 1875.
The Hat and Beaver was also used for inquests. In 1864, for example, Mary Nobbs, a 19 year old domestic servant girl in the employ of Mrs Johnson in Oxford Street, was questioned by her employer as to her condition as she believed Mary was pregnant. Mary denied this, fearing for her future and with nowhere to turn, became very distressed but was still told to leave the next day.
After requesting a knife and dustpan Mary went into the kitchen, where she was shortly to cry out ‘Oh dear.’ When approached by her friend and fellow domestic, Eliza Shawley, Mary said ‘Don’t say anything it has all come, pray don’t tell I’m all right now.’ Mary was sat on a chair in the kitchen surrounded by pools of blood. Shawley fetched Mrs Johnson and a surgeon, Mr Sidley was called for.
As the surgeon was going through the washhouse to the kitchen he heard a baby crying, the sound coming from the privy. On entering the privy he looked down and could see a baby in the excrement. Sidley called for the night soil men, who recovered the baby, wrapped it in a blanket and put it near the fire to warm. The baby a boy was in a feeble state and died within the hour.
The surgeon told the inquest at the Hat & Beaver that after the birth was found he came across the afterbirth in a dustpan, the cord being torn as from a blunt knife. He believed the cause of death was from exposure and the vitiated atmosphere it had inhaled from being partly submerged in the privy. Mary was charged with concealing the birth and throwing the child in the privy, being committed to the assizes on a charge of ‘Wilful Murder’.
On the 5th of May 1864, a crowd assembled outside the courthouse. The newspaper report suggested ‘some manifestation of rudeness’ came from the crowd as Mary was ushered from gaol to the courthouse where inside the charge of murder was reduced to manslaughter.
With a clearly distressed Mary present in court, this pitiful case was heard by a sympathetic jury whose verdict was one of acquittal. There is no further mention of Mary Nobbs in Leicester.
John Burnhope licensee 1875. It does seem that there was some family friction after owner Jane Morris married John Burnhope as in June 1876 John Burnhope was up in court charged with assaulting Margaret Morris after trying to evict her from living there, in July an order of ejection was issued against John Morris by Burnhope , Jane (Morris) Burnhope was still the owner and she put the Freehold pub up for sale in June 1887.
Joseph Lowe Sept 1887. Thomas Varnham Manton Nov 1887.Sarah Manton Dec 1887. Frederick Thorpe 1889 (dec) Selina Thorpe 1890. Harry Thorpe 1891. Jane Burnhope 1894 also still listed as owner.would seemingly sell the pub to Brunt & Bucknall Brewery the owners. James Ballard license 1895. Alfred Ballard licensee 1903.
William Greasley licensee 1911. 1919 Salts Brewery Burton took over the running of Brunt & Bucknall pubs.
William Forehead 1924. (dec) 1927 Bass Ratcliffe & Gretton would buy out Salts Brewery.
William Harold Tebbutt licensee 1930. .
John Riddle licensee c1945. Florence Cox c1952.
Little changed in the Hat and Beaver from the 1960s through to its demise in 2007, when Hardy and Hansons foolishly closed the pub just prior to the new Highcross Shopping complex due to open opposite. ‘The Hat’ was one of my all time favourite pubs: unspoilt, and an oasis of calm in an otherwise manic world.
Barry Lount
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