Records from 1560 recorded a Bird in Hand address in Redcross Street.
Corporation rental book of 1711 records the Bird in Hand Redcross Street, 1726 records an Old Mitre in the recognizance orders.
Again in 1729, a receipt book records a £1 paid to Mr John Cooper for a ‘messuage in Redcross Street with garden in Chaffe Lane adjoining the said house now in the occupation of Wm Andrews, formally the sign of the Bird in Hand now called the Old Mitre.’
1771 John Wiles victular at the Old Mitre held an auction for 22 stocking frames.
In 1810, the Old Mitre had a stocking makers shop adjoining. A carriers also ran from here and auctions were held on the premises. Other properties were auctioned from here plus stocking frames as in 1813, and a further twenty five in 1817. 1828 saw the sale of six adjoining tenements.
The Old Mitre was an inn of some significance in old Leicester and many inquests were held here. In October 1834 this included that of chimney sweep, Thomas Hawes, that recorded a verdict of ‘Died by the visitation of God.’
Later that year an inquest held at the Old Mitre after five children who were playing in an unoccupied house in nearby Bakehouse Lane when the roof and walls collapsed in on them, burying them. Nearby workers on hearing the noise rushed to the scene to extract the children, four of whom were severely injured. The fifth, a three year old named Allsop, was dead – his head described as completely pulverised.
In 1844, landlord Thomas Preston was charged with having eighty persons in his house after hours, many of them notorious bad characters.
Court records show many other cases of violent conduct during Thomas Preston’s tenure.
Another inquest in 1863 was on Thomas Taylor. He had entered the Old Mitre smoking a long clay pipe and ordered a pint. Before he drank the ale he went into the yard and tripped on a piece of wood, causing him to fall. The pipe broke off in his mouth, hamming it in there. With around four inches still sticking in his mouth, Taylor was taken home in a distressed state, and then on to the Royal Infirmary where it was extracted, He died from his injuries sustained by the clay pipe.
An inquest held at the Old Mitre in July 1868, recorded that the victim was ‘poisoned’ by breathing foul air in tiny closed room with no ventilation.
The Old Mitre ran various lodges and sick clubs. The rules of one sick club from circa 1904 read:
The Old Mitre continued being at the heart of old Leicester up until circa 1938, when the license was transferred to the newly built Blackbird on Blackbird Road. This was initiated by Everards, who had owned the pub since 1906 prior to which the Old Mitre had always brewed its own ale.
The victualler W. Starbuck, kept the Duke of York circa 1904-1906 and then the Rose & Crown in Humberstone Gate – both Everards pubs. It doesn’t look like either of them, Starbuck was at the Freemasons in 1920, but that was not an Everards’ pub. A William Starbuck also kept the Spar Tavern but neither of those were Everards either. Did he also keep the Old Mitre?
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