The Black Horse of the past
It was an invading Roman army that brought pubs, known then as tabernae, to the UK in 43 AD to quench the thirst of the legionary troops.
Beer would almost certainly have been brewed and sold in Cranham in the farms but the first historical record for the Black Horse dates from the early 1700’s. Back in 1761, the property was described as a ‘Cottage with half acre, situated at the Sheepwash’. At this time the original Black Horse Inn was one of several tenements which is now “The Old House” situated opposite the Village Hall. The situation of the inn was ideal; being adjacent to the road and close to the stream which in days of poor sanitation may have been an added bonus.
Stories
A difficulty arose in 1787 when Eleanor Cuff, a customer, brought charges against William Keene for the method he used to ‘fine’ the beer.
‘On entering the cellar she found a stick with a piece of string attached to it across the bunghole of a barrel, from which William was drawing her a pint. She pulled up the string and found a large toad tied by the leg.’
When he made his will in 1794, William bequeathed the Black Horse to his wife, Sarah. After her death the property passed to his daughter Hannah who had by then had married William Verinder. He became a successful businessman acquiring land and property to enlarge his estate. Unfortunately, he met an untimely end in 1819, aged 62, when instead of taking cream of tartar for his stomach disorder, he took the wrong bottle from the cupboard and finished up taking arsenic instead.
Disagreements among William’s seven children, resulted in part of the estate including the Black Horse, which then consisted of four cottages, being sold in 1835 to Joseph Lovegrove.
Our assumption is that part of the sale agreement was that the family kept the Black Horse name which would explain why the pub subsequently became known as the Potters Arms. Joseph remained the owner for almost 40 years, during which time the property became known as the Old House probably when the beer retailing business ceased trading on the premises. It is unclear when this happened, but it is thought to have been around 1856.
One of William’s seven children, Mary Derrett née Keene, and her husband James became the owners of the two cottages which became the current Black Horse.
Mary was charged in 1834 with concealing the birth of her male bastard child. She married her cousin Thomas Verrinder who in turn had a criminal record, being charged with stealing 10 pecks, around 3 cubic feet, of potatoes from Thomas Smith.
The exact date when Robert Atkins, their son-in-law, started trading from the Black Horse is unclear, but on the census of 1841 Robert is listed as a publican, and was employing John Birt and Hannah Hains as servants.
His son William Atkins had a habit of coming home drunk and late whenever he earned any money. One time, when his father locked him out, he threw a 34lb stone at the door destroying it. He was sentenced to 10 days in jail as a result.
Twenty years later in 1861 the present Black Horse was still divided into two small dwellings, Robert who was now following a farming profession, together with his family were living in one part, whilst the other part was occupied by Robert Tuffly, his tenant inn keeper
In 1878, there was a Church petition to justices that two alehouses here should be suppressed. Following Robert’s death in 1882 the Black Horse passed to Samuel Atkins, a nephew from London whose ownership continued until 1908. Samuel did not suffer fools gladly, but appears to have been held in high esteem by all except the Cranham parish councillors following his proposal “That the Parish Council be abolished as unnecessary expense and not any use to the Parish.”
By 1885 the tenancy of the free house was held by John and Louise Hulbert, they were followed by Henry Pinching Taylor who married Fanny Birt. Henry died at the Black Horse in 1895, when he was 30 years old. One of his descendants Ralph Goulden, remembers being told that a shilling would buy seven pints of ale just before the turn of the 20th century.
Thomas Middlecote first came to Cranham from Upton St Leonards when he was 14 years old, initially as a farm worker. He married Jane and they had three children. He became well respected in the village and in 1897 was elected Parish Clerk. He then ran the Royal William for a time before becoming the inn keeper of the Black Horse in approximately 1908, when the lessee was the Dolgelly Brewery. In 1912 he moved to Knoll Cottage where he remained until his death in 1938. Besides being a publican he was also an experienced stonemason and to his credit is the lych-gate where his son Lewis, a survivor of the war is remembered.
In the 1920’s the sanatorium patients caused concern to Henry and Agnes Clash who were the tenants of the inn. Some of the regulars objected to the patients drinking there due to the risk of infection. One of these customers was asked to bring her own glass, as the only facility for washing glasses was a bowl on the counter!
During the 1950’s when the Cheltenham and Hereford Brewery owned the inn, one of their delivery vehicles carrying empty bottles crashed into the wall at the bottom of the hill near the Scout HQ. This incident happened two years before Roly and Flora Meredith applied to the brewery for the tenancy. They thought themselves very fortunate to be appointed, as 80 other applicants had applied. Flora and Roly were a popular couple and had very loyal customers.
One of their regulars was ‘Spiffer’ Barnfield who lived in The Row. His wife Jenny did not approve of his drinking, so he was known to secrete a bottle of beer in the hedge above the inn to drink later, one night it was stolen and ‘Spiffer’ apparently ‘went berserk’.
In the 1960’s, Mr Poyner the landlord, had concerns that his takings would be adversely affected by the granting of a license to sell wines and spirits at the village stores owned by Mr Sindall; he envisaged a further loss of business following the introduction of legislation regarding the drink and driving laws.
It was in June 1975 that another popular landlord Ray Tortonese and his wife Sybil took over the licence. As well as being an excellent landlord, he also became a conservationist, turning Simmonds Hall Farm into a haven for breeding rare birds.
The next tenants were David and Julie Job who were able to buy the freehold from Whitbread due to the enactment of the 1989 ‘Beer Orders’ act which stipulated that the number of tied pubs for each brewery be limited to 2000. Under their ownership the inn retained much of its original character and features and they provided generous helpings of excellent food together with very well kept beer.
Just up the track leading to the car park was the icehouse, which reportedly extended for many yards into the hillside. Following a rock fall in the 1970’s it became a safety hazard and was blocked up, although the entrance way served for many years as the wood store.
Famous Drinkers at the pub:
- The composer Gustav Holst (Planets Suite) occasionally stayed in Midwinter Cottage opposite the pub. Read more
- Colonel Carne who famously lead a 700-man battalion astonishing resistance against an estimated 11,000 attackers in the Korean War. Read more
- George Orwell, the pen name of Eric Blair, spent time at the sanitorium which used to exist in Cranham up by the Sawmill. Patients staying there would go down to visit the pub although some of the regulars objected to the patients drinking there due to the risk of infection. Read more