The map indicates the Jolly Miller with an ‘x’ in Marlborough Street, on the corner of cottage square. This is another one of those off the main road pubs for which, frustratingly a photo has yet to be found.
The origins of the beer house are also obscure. (JR) has Mary Cheney as victualler circa1840 – although this hasn’t been firmly established – and he also has Thomas Beasley as victualler from 1846. That is more certain, as an auction house advert in November 1849 December declared:
‘An auction to be held of Bakehouse, four tenements and outbuildings situated in the yard belonging to Thomas Beasley, pleasantly situated in Union St off Welford Rd , plus appurtenances also in the occupation of Thomas Beasley in Union Place, which has in the past years been used as a beerhouse.’
The ad states both Union Street and Union Place, which may have been a misprint – Union Place was to be renamed Marlborough Street.
It is also known that Thomas Beasley was living with his family in Union Place in 1836 as his daughter Mary Ann, died there that year, aged just 17.
In official directories Thomas and wife Anne were recorded as victuallers from circa 1840s until circa 1869.
It can be deduced from the above snippets, therefore, that Thomas Beasley, baker, (consequently the name Jolly Miller), and beerhouse keeper, ran the beerhouse from circa 1830s for the next thirty-odd years. Even the after auction of 1849, Thomas and family continued to trade from there, so the outcome of the auction seems not to have produced a buyer.
Apart from a couple of court records of drunkenness and attempted burglary, the only other report is from 1876 when John Wagstaff was licensee. He entertained a meeting of the Leicester Retail Brewers at the Jolly Miller, where a resolution was passed ‘deeply regretting the passing of Chief Constable F. Goodyear and a letter of condolences be sent to his widow’ – so the Jolly Miller was still brewing at that point.
Thomas Salt of Burton was to later own the pub which closed on the 23rd of December 1919.
