Circa 1838, the Alderman Newton School was established on the corner of Holy Bones and St Nicholas Street, together with a master’s house. It was a religious school, in or near the grounds of St Nicholas Church.
Circa 1864 (the school known as the Green Coat School due to their uniforms), the pupil numbers had outgrown the school size so was eventually moved to another location.
The premises were later to be used as a leather warehouse for part of the school, with the master’s house and part of the building. A licence was granted for a beer house called the Leather Bottle.
In 1869, a Mr Cleaver bought the property and was granted his licence for the Leather Bottle to be run by William Soar. Cleaver demolished the old school and beer house, having a total rebuild. The new beerhouse stood corner of Holy Bones & St Nicholas Street.
The new beerhouse was aptly called the Alderman Newton and at the next Brewster sessions in 1871 Mr Cleaver applied for his renewal of the Alderman Newton. This was to cause a problem as, according to the license department, this beerhouse did not exist. There had been one for the Leather Bottle but that was demolished and the new building – the Alderman Newton – had never applied for a licence, having mistakenly carried on with one granted to the Leather Bottle.
The Mayor was minded to grant the licence, but the matter was adjourned for a month – giving time for the church and Temperance League to mount a campaign against renewal.
Witnesses were called with tales of seventy or more youths, aged from nine years, using the beer house. Regardless of no police objections, wild tales of drunkenness were claimed, and a petition organised by the church was handed in against this nuisance to the neighbourhood. The Mayor considered all this, eventually coming down on the church’s side and refused the licence.
SEE LEATHER BOTTLE under HOLY BONES For more information.
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