We have no idea as to how the Stirling Castle pub got its name. It was certainly part of the Castle Iron Foundry complex in Ruding Street – Alexander Street, as the map below shows.
Earliest record is from 1824 when Mr Hubbard of the Stirling Castle, gave £1 to the Framework Knitters’ Fund. Mr Hubbard was to die at the Stirling Castle after a short illness in 1827.
Various inquests were held here around the 1820s – 1830s. In 1829, the press described rather delicately that some ‘wearing apparel’ had been stolen off the washing line.
John Rodgers was victualler in the 1830s when one Solomon Thompson was sent to the House of Correction for two months, after breaking a window at the Stirling Castle.
Advert from June 1840: To Let, that old established and very commodious public house the Stirling Castle situated in the Friars, rent of £30 apply at the Premises.
Samuel Pegg, who ran the iron and brass foundry from circa 1830, was victualler from 1841. There are many accounts of Samuel Pegg at the Castle, courting misfortune in 1845 when he was fined for being drunk in a public place. Three years later, in October 1848, a newspaper reported a Fire in the Friars’:
Monday night fire broke out in the model room of Mr Peggs foundary at the Stirling Castle, flames spread quickly due to the tempestuous state of the weather, The Sun Fire Engine was soon on the spot and within 4 hours the devouring element was subdued, not before destroying the engine room, model shop etc. We regret to add Mr Pegg was not insured.
Samuel Pegg obviously recovered from the fire ordeal as his business once again flourished, but misfortune struck again in 1854 when the family sat down to dinner. On the menu were turnip tops bought from a street hawker who called at the premises on various occasions. Nine sat down to eat, five had the turnip, four didn’t. The five who ate the turnip tops, including Mr and Mrs Pegg, soon became violently ill with much vomiting. A surgeon who was called diagnosed poisoning. The turnip leaves had been discarded in the yard which the chickens soon fed on. They unfortunately died, but luckily the Peggs eventually recovered. The hawker must have pulled some poisonous plants together with the turnips, so a warning was given to be careful when buying turnips and watercress from street hawkers.
In the 1861 census, the Pegg family who lived at the Stirling Castle were as follows:
The 1871 census added to those names are Sarah Ann Pegg (thirty four), Elizabeth Pegg (fourteen), Ada Pegg (twelve), Mary Ann Pegg (eight), and John Pegg (six). Samuel Pegg brewed at the pub 1870s – 1880s.
Son Arthur was to take on the licence of the Stirling Castle by the next census in 1881. A year before, a twenty-year old domestic servant, Lizzie Archer, stole a diamond ring from Arthur Pegg. She was sentenced to one months imprisonment – ‘with such labour as she could do.’
In 1882, the partnership of Arthur and his father Samuel was dissolved by mutual consent. Although Arthur was still listed as licensee in 1883, the business Samuel Pegg & Son continued making machinery for boot and hosiery companies. Directory records now have the Stirling Castle still at 41 Ruding Street, but Samuel Pegg & Son is named under Alexander St. Arthur died in 1886.
By 1890, Charles Bowler was licensee, then in 1898 John Bolton, 1909 Charles Lee, and in 1916 and 1920, Horace Stanyon was listed as victualler. The address was now as 20 Ruding Street. The Stirling Castle pub closed around 1927.
Looking down Blackfriars Street from where the Stirling Castle stood on Ruding Street. The Great Central Railway can be seen at the bottom of Blackfriars Street, but the Stirling Castle was unaffected by the railway construction.
A Brunt & Bucknall Brewery house from circa 1890, acquired by Thomas Salt of Burton in 1919.
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