The Exhibition Inn was once situated at 32 Loughborough Road.The site is now an industrial premises
It was first recorded in the 1854 Melville trade directory,and was probably named after the Great Exhibition of 1851.
The first landlord was William Cooper. The last record of the Exhibition occurs in Kelly’s trade directory of 1916, when the landlord was Arthur Matts. So it existed for about 60 years.
The Exhibition (pub sign) can be seen in the photographs below.
William Pepper came to Mountsorrel in the 1850’s to fetch two boat loads of granite to deliver to his father’s wharf in Kegworth. He put his horse up at the Exhibition and heard that the inn was up for sale. It also had a good coal wharf like his father’s in Kegworth, so he decided to buy it.
He remained at the Exhibition for about 10 years. In 1871 he was a landlord, a coal merchant and a farmer with 45 acres. By 1875 his son in law, Thomas Pepper had taken over the inn and the coal business.William became a full time farmer,and in 1877 he built a steam operated flour mill at the bottom of Exhibition Yard.
Thomas remained there for about 15 years until around 1890 when he too became a farmer.
The next landlord was John Throssel, followed by George West who,in 1881, had been living at the Exhibition as Thomas Pepper’s servant. He was still there in 1912.
Shortly afterwards the pub was closed. It later became Mrs Proud’s sweet shop