Author: Keith Foster
The Swan [Nag’s Head]
There was an earlier Swan Inn in Mountsorrel mentioned in a report by the Commissioners of Charitable Uses, dated the 27th day of September 1687. Rent from the premises was paid into a charity called the Town Rents.
The Swan today was originally called the Nag’s Head. The building is a late 17th century listed building, and there is was? a date, in Roman lettering, of May 2 1688 on the window at the back of the pub. In this photo from the 1970s there also appears to be some sort of inscription beneath the render and above the window .
The earliest record we have of the Nag’s Head is from the 1760s when it was owned by the mother of William Gibbons.
William married Sarah Cross on 1st May 1759. The burial of their first child William was recorded at the chapel of St John the Baptist (St Peter’s church now) on September 20th 1759. It is not known where he was buried as the chapel had no graveyard until sometime that year. Another son also called William was born in 1775.
In a 1767 settlement examination of William Gibbons he declared that he was born in the North End of Mountsorrel but in 1761 he lived in his own house, the Plough[now BOX KITCHEN], in the South End. After his mother died he inherited the Nags Head in the North End. He moved there and stayed for about 14 days before selling it for £200.
It was advertised in 1774 :
To be sold by auction on 7 March 1774 “The Nags Head”, Mountsorrel, including a good malt office and stabling for 20 horses etc
And again in 1825:
To be sold by auction at the house of Mr George Briggs known by the sign of the Nags Head in Mountsorrel on Friday 18 November at 4 o’ clock in the after noon. All that old established and well known public house now in full business called the Nag’s Head situate in the middle of the town of Mountsorrel with stables outbuildings etc.
Also a tenement adjoining and a right of common on Mountsorrel hills
George Briggs was the landlord in 1812. He ran the pub with his wife Lydia until he died in 1833, aged 49. They had three children, Sarah who died in 1822 age 1 year, Mary who died by accident in 1824 age 6 years and Samuel who died in 1825 age 9 months. Their headstone can be seen in the churchyard of St Peter’s church.
After the death of her husband Lydia took over the running of the pub until she died in 1847
The next landlord and landlady were Charles and Sarah Goddard. Charles doesn’t appear to have been the ideal landlord.
In August 1850 the magistrates refused to renew the license for the Nag’s Head, considering that Goddard, the present landlord, (who was convicted a few weeks ago of allowing drinking and fornication on his premises on the Sunday) was an unfit person to be entrusted with it.
In 1852 Charles Goddard was fined 20s for keeping his house open after 10p.m. In 1854 Goddard was involved in the death of a Mr Roper, a confectioner, who was with his stall at Mountsorrel Fair. Having business in Leicester he got a lift with a Mr Boyer and Goddard who were going to Leicester for some porter. Roper had a glass of ale in the Nag’s Head and quarter of a pint of gin in Leicester. On the way back he sat on a porter barrel at the back of the cart. At the top of Wanlip Hill he fell off the cart. Goddard went to pick him up but he said ”let me lie, I’m a dead man.” However they placed him on a porter barrel and carried on. At Mountsorrel a number of youths ran after the cart shouting, believing Roper to be intoxicated. The doctor on examination found bruises on his body and that his legs were powerless. He never rallied, but became gradually worse and died on Sunday morning. After his death rumours were prevalent that he was treated very roughly by Goddard and Boyer after the accident, but the jury returned a verdict of ‘Accidental Death’
In 1855 Charles and Sarah Goddard were both convicted of being drunk and disorderly. In the same year Charles was charged with keeping his beer house open in the afternoon. PC Bosworth found a man in the house tipsy just after 5 o’ clock and the servant girl standing by his side with a jug of ale under her apron.
After Charles died Sarah carried on as landlady of the Nag’s Head but later moved to Leicester where, in 1861, she was landlady of the Junction Inn
For the next 20 years the pub’s landlord was John Boulton who as well as being a victualler was a farmer of 40 acres employing 2 men and a boy.
He was fined five shillings in for selling spirits at half past eleven on Sunday morning. Sergeant Bosworth said that there were 30 men drunk at Mountsorrel; the bench retorted you ought to have brought them all here!
After he died in 1877 the next landlord that stayed for any length of time was George Wilcocks, In the early 1890s he moved and took over the Bull’s Head in Syston . When he died he was still owed the £300 he had loaned to his son in law Henry Barrs, landlord of the Bull and Mouth.
When this photograph of the annual holiday to Nottingham was taken in July 1899 William Thompson was the landlord.
Jonathan Brewin was landlord from the early 1900s until he died in 1921 when his son in law John Geary took over for a few years.
In 1935 the landlord John Hughs was summoned for being drunk in his own pub. His wife accused him of drinking a bottle and a half of whisky in the morning. He replied ‘Do what you like I am leaving in two months’
In the 1930s and 1940s there was an active darts team
Back Row: Mr Musson-Geo Lindsey-Ernie Chapman-Laura Fletcher-Hilda Parker-Mrs Riley-Florrie Astley- Loll Fisher-Beck Hawksworth-Kitty Walker Middle Row: Mr Porter-William Astley-Geo Hardy-Dick Watson-?-Nellie Mee-Percy Perters-Mrs Spiby- Mrs Gilbert Front Row: Harold [pub singer]-Gert Astley-Ernie [pianist]-Gertie Parker [landlady]-Mrs Hardy-Tom Hardy-Mrs White
In 1961 the licensee, Peter Morris, had extensive alterations carried out . He didn’t find the treasure supposedly hidden away by a former licensee, to stop his beautiful young wife getting her hands on his money, but he did find a large number of cases of stuffed fish !
There was some lively entertainment in the 1970s!!
After two brothers, David and Alan Winser who lived next door to the pub purchased it in 1990 the Nag’s Head was no more.
They changed its name to The Swan.
They were both real ale enthusiasts so thought what better than to open a pub next door and sell our favourite Theakston beers. The pub was refurnished but like the previous alterations carried out in 1961 they failed to find the gold that a previous occupant is said to have hidden in the walls to keep it from his wife. The pub menu offered a superior cuisine and every week a slimming ‘Hip and Thigh’ dish was created for the menu by fitness expert Rosemary Conley.
The photo shows Alan, on th left, and David discussing the menu with Roemary Conley
NORTH END SHOPS
This article about shops in the north end of Mountsorrel begins in the Market Place which, for many years as its name suggests, was the site of the village market which began in 1292.
The Buttermarket was built in 1793 by Sir Joseph Danvers who had removed the original market cross to his estate in Swithland (where it can still be glimpsed in the field to the left as you enter the village).
This building was erected to enable the stall-holders to shelter in bad weather. It was used as a market venue for many years but then fell into disrepair on several occasions. It underwent major renovation work in 2012 and today is the most recognisable feature of the village.
Continue reading “NORTH END SHOPS”Newsletters 2022
Mountsorrel Town Rents
In 1687 the Commissioners for Charitable Uses reported on their investigation into the ‘Town Rents’ charity. They were working under the Act to redress the Misimployment of Lands, Goods, and Stocks of Money, heretofore given to Charitable Uses.
They discovered that:
The rents from property and land in Mountsorell, Quorndon, Barrow sur Soarum, and Roathlye were long since given by some person or persons unknown to several inhabitants of the Mountsorell, to be by them employed towards charitable uses. A schedule of the property and land is given below.
Part of the ‘rents’ were paid to the curate and part to the chapel clerk with the rest being used for repairing the highways, and other necessary uses.
John Smith and Adrian Gregory were the surviving trustees for the collecting and paying the rents.
Ralph Thurman, had not paid his town-rent of eleven shillings and eight pence per annum, for eleven years and half ending the four and twentieth day of June last, amounting in the whole to six pounds, fourteen shillings, and two pence.
All the trees of oak, ash, or elm, growing, in the parcels of land mentioned in the schedule ought to be applied to some charitable uses within the town of Mountsorell, except the trees in the chapel yard, and one close of John Jarratt called Bagnall’s Close.
The Schedule
| Description of property | Owner | Occupied by | Rent pa |
| Chapel Yard Close and another close | Mr Smalley | Mr Smalley | 8s 8d |
| A messuage called the Swan Inn Field near the wood called Hawcliffe Wood | John Oldershaw | John Oldershaw Edward Thornton | 5s 4d |
| A messuage called the White Lion | Richard Ireland | Samuel Hood | 11s 2d |
| A messuage | Ralph Thurman | Ralph Thurman | 11s 8d |
| A piece of land in Quorndon called Daw Piece | Mr Thistlethwaite | Mr Thistlethwaite | 1s 8d |
There was another commission into charities in England and Wales which lasted from 1812 to 1839. The report on the charities of Mountsorrel, published in 1838, referred to the Town Rents charity as the Unknown Donor’s Charity. It states that in November 1650, whereby Ralph Smalley conveyed all and singular the messuages, cottages, houses, edifices, and lands in Mount Sorrell, Rothley, Barrow, and Quorndon, which he had of the gift and feoffment of George Jarrett and others, to the use of himself and several other persons, their heirs and assigns.
It also states that the curate to be paid £5pa, 20s yearly to be paid to the schoolmaster to teach the children of the poor, 13s 4d. to be paid yearly to the chapel clerk and the residue should be yearly paid to the poor of both ends of the town of Mountsorrell. The curate and schoolmaster to collect the rents and give them to the overseers to distribute among the poor. The curate and schoolmaster also to keep an account of the receipts and payments. And it was further decreed that the surviving trustees should appoint new trustees, and that when there were only three of the trustees living, that they should appoint 10 other persons living in Mountsorrel.
When the school was ‘taken over’ in 1746 by Sir Joseph Danvers to set up his free school he required that the trustees of the Town Rents should continue to pay twenty shillings a year to the Chappel Yard schoolmaster as they had to the previous headmaster, James Freeman; otherwise only 4 boys from Mountsorrel, not 8, would receive free education.
The 1838 commission reported that new trustees were appointed, the last two in 1727, but the charity was not recorded in the Parliamentary Returns of 1786.
They also stated that the income of this charity probably arose from fee-farm rents, but the lands described in the schedule cannot be identified, due to the changes made in the description of all the property in the parish by the inclosure of 1781. This charity must therefore be considered to be lost.
Note fee-farm properties are freehold properties although the owner is subject to annual rents, effectively leases forever.
Mountsorrel Pubs Past and Present
There are only three pubs left in Mountsorrel. They are The Swan, once called The Nag’s Head, The Waterside, once the Duke of York and a new micro pub The Sorrel Fox.
The only pub whose location is known but not shown on the map is The Lindens which was once situated in Halstead Road. The total number of confirmed pubs is thirty two. A pub called the Paul Pry has been reported to have existed in Watling Street, but we have not been able to confirm this.
The White Swan
The White Swan was a coaching inn once situated opposite the Buttermarket. John Brown was the landlord from the early 1800’s. Prior to that he was landlord of The Harrow on the other side of the road. In Pigot’s 1828 trade directory it is recorded that the White Swan was also the post office and that John Brown was the landlord and postmaster.Letters arrived from London and the south at seven in the evening and from Manchester and the north at quarter to eight in the morning. They were dispatched immediately. Coaches to all parts of the country passed through Mountsorrel almost every hour.
John Brown’s brother Benjamin, who had fought at Waterloo, joined him for a while after he came out of the army in 1821, before he became a village constable. John Brown moved to the King William IV on Leicester Road around 1835 and his brother Thomas took over at the White Swan.
Thomas died at the White Swan in 1838 and the next landlord was Edward Hickling, followed by Joseph Atherley. By 1849 George Bampton had taken over the White Swan and his son, also George Bampton, was still there in 1901. As well as being landlords father and son, between them, were at various times also farmers, insurance agents, grocers, rate collectors, agents for Burton Ales and excise officers.
They were followed by Samual Moore in 1908, John Hipwell in 1912, Thomas Johnson 1915 to 1925 and Arthur Cook in 1928.
In this painting, attributed to John Fernely or his daughter Sarah, we can see the White Swan and what looks like the landlord, in his white apron, standing outside his pub. The landlord in 1842 was Mr Hickling.
Market Place 1842
Let no one be charmed by the name of Mountsorrel, for close on a mile along the road runs an abject townlet of the out of elbows down at heel variety with row upon row of mean cottages. Still stands the Black Swan, although it does little but stand being forlorn and forgotten. The White Swan a contemporary with its black brother is more fortunate and appears still to thrive. This is modern Mountsorrel but you can still see vestiges of the Mountsorrel from a hundred to three hundred years ago when the town depended for its existence on the road. Mountsorrel is precisely as described above, but still it is a charming subject for a sketch.
Standing on the cobblestoned footwalk by the side of the White Swan you look across to the granite crag, to a group of old houses and the singular temple like market cross.
So wrote Charles Harper in his book, The Manchester and Glasgow Road published in 1907
During the 1930’s, 40’s and early 1950’s the White Swan had a darts team. In 1938 its rivals in Mountsorrel were the following eleven other teams: Stag & Pheasant, Railway Inn, King William, Duke of York, Anchor Inn, Nag’s Head, bull & Mouth, Constitutional Club, Working Men’s Club, Dog & Gun and the Prince of Wales
In February 1950 the license of the White Swan was transferred to The Lindens in Halstead Road. The Parish Council and the local residents objected but in March 1950 the Loughborough magistrates granted an application for a public-house, and the White Swan closed down.
” I used to live in the old White Swan when it was no longer a pub.We moved around 1956 when I was eight. we had a lot of out buildings and I think eight acres of land that used to flood, my father use to keep 150 pigs and horses. People used to hold there noses walking by our house. Sometimes the pigs escaped on to the main road and ran away I’d jump on a horse bare back and go round ’em up, must have looked hilarious; the butcher across the road the bike shop owner next door, the local barber and the local bobby all chasing squealing pigs.” John Roberts
Around 1963 the building was bought by a firm which, according to a Mr Lawrence Vendybuck, a director of that firm living at 175 Leicester Road, had spent money on renovations and intended to turn it into a country club. This never happened and the building fell into disrepair
Councillor Harold Newman declared the White Swan was a menace to public safety and that three cattle trucks were packed in the yard making the appearance very unsightly.
In 1963 a villager complained at a Mountsorrel parish meeting about the condition of the Old White Swan public house and was told that the property is on the of ancient buildings list and cannot be demolished until the final list is released be the Ministry.
After it was demolished the site lay empty and derelict for many years until 1987, when houses were built on the site
A door hinge from the White Swan
The Griffin Inn
The Market Place Off License at no 7 and 7a Market Place was once a pub called The Griffin. The Gill family ran this pub for over 100 years. John Gill was born in 1712 in the North End of Mountsorrel. His wife Elisabeth was the licensee of the Griffin Inn
In the Record Office for Leicestershire Leicester and Rutland are two inn licenses issued to Elisabeth Gill one dated 1776 the other dated 1783
The license was to keep a common ale house for one year only and to sell bread and other victuals, beer, ale and other exciteable liquors except Brandy, Rum, Arrach, Usbequaugh, Geneva, Aqua Vitae and other distilled liquors. No unlawful games, drunkeness, or other disorder to be suffered in the house, out house,yard, garden or backside.
(Arrack is an eastern Mediterranean liquor flavoured with aniseed. Usbequaugh is Whisky, Geneva or Jenever is a Dutch spirit similar to Gin)
John Gill was a barber. He was also a surgeon, which we can deduce from the household papers of the Gill family held in the Record Office for Leicestershire Leicester and Rutland.
| Eligha Hampson Dr to John Gill for cureing his leg | |
| Feb ye 1765 | £-d |
| Feb ye 3 Bleeding | 6d |
| Ditto ye 9 Bleeding | 6d |
| 3 ounces of tincture | 1s- 6d |
| 2 ounces of ointment | 1s-0d |
| 24 times dressing and atendance | 3s-6d |
| 7s-0d | |
| March ye 16 1765 recev’d in part payment 2 shillings |
John Gill also had a recipe for cough medicine
for a Cough of the Loungs
2 oz of Sweet Oyl
? oz of Honey
2 oz of Rhubarb
2oz of fresh Butter
Half a pint ow Water
boyl them till digested
John Gill died in 1776 and was buried in the churchyard of the North End chapel (now St Peter’s Church) on February 26. His headstone is still there. In his will dated November 25 1772 he left his house with yard or backside in Mountsorrel in which he lived in to his wife Elisabeth during her lifetime. Elisabeth lived for another twelve years and died in 1788. She was buried on May 10 in the church yard with her husband where her headstone remains still. When she died she was still the victualler at the Griffin.
After Elisabeth died the pub was taken over by Ann Gill who remained there until 1819 when Mary Gill took over and was there until the early 1840’s. She was succeeded by John Gill who remained there until 1875. The following year another Gill, Elisabeth took over until Joseph Billson became landlord in 1881 until 1899. The pub was sold in 1895 for £1120. Mary Billson took over for a brief period and later landlords were Harry Rudkin and Samuel Stenson.
The Belgrave Cyclists at the Griffin in 1896. The landlord is Bob Bilson, in short sleeves, and next to him, on the right, is J Garner, who later became captain of Leicester Rugby Football Club
Another image of cyclists from our archive, but where?
A fancy dress parade taken outside the Griffin in the summer of 1914. This was an annual event raising funds for the LRI. The cyclists were Annie Houghton, Harry Ward and Dorothy Jacques.
In March1920 an application to renew the license was opposed on the grounds of redundancy and structural defects. The doors could not stand up in some of the rooms. The owners, Sharpe & Son of Sileby, and the landlord Samuel Stenson argued that the house was no worse that any other and that trade was improving. It was referred for compensation. The pub closed on 31 December 1921.
It later became an off license and chemist run by I N Newton
lucky to survive 
1972 now an off license and a shop
By 1972 the off license was being run by Mr Redhead. The shop changed hands several times. It was a gun shop, a golf shop, Blankley & Poole the upholsterer and a grocery shop run by Roger Boon.
In the 80’s it was sold to Mr and Mrs Patel who are still there and run it as an off license and general store.
Elizabeth Thornton
Elizabeth Thornton was an early Baptist, born in 1632 who lived in Mountsorrel. She died in 1699 and in her will she left three houses and some land in Barrow to four trustees so that the rent could be used to maintain the Baptist Burial Ground. The burial ground was situated on the corner of what is now Barons Way and Leicester Road.
One of the three houses, which was next to the burial ground, was converted to a meeting house for Baptists.This house was on the site of the Thornton & Hickling cottages that were demolished and replaced in 1987 by housing. It was known as the ‘Back Door Meeting House’, its entrance being a corner door at the back in a farmyard. It was a low thatched structure measuring approximately 26 feet by 14 feet.
At one point the house was being used as a hay barn and the burial ground was used as a wood yard, a shame and reproach to Mountsorrel. So in 1880 the burial ground, was restored by the trustees. It was laid out with flower beds and a huge block of undressed granite with an inscription in lead letters “Here lieth the body of Elizabeth, wife of Edward Thornton, who died on the 25th June 1699, in the 67th year of her age The Trustees of Thornton and Hickling’s Charity have erected this memorial, 1880.”
The memorial stone is still there in the front garden of the building on the corner of Barons Way
In 1987 the gravestones were removed to Mountsorrel Cemetery where they now lie, some in a very poor state of repair.
The Elizabeth Thornton charity still exists, now linked to the Bartholomew Hickling Charity.
Elizabeth was married to Edward Thornton. It is not known where in Mountsorrel they lived but the house was a substantial dwelling. There were five rooms on the ground floor, three bedrooms upstairs and a barn outside. On the ground floor were the principal living room (called the ‘house’), the upper parlour, the nether (lower) parlour, the kitchen and the buttery. The buttery was used for brewing beer. When Elizabeth died it contained five barrels and two thralls (frames for holding the barrels).
Edward died in 1692 and Elizabeth in 1699. The contents of their house when Elizabeth died are recorded below.
In her will, as well as the land and houses bequeathed to maintain the burial ground she left land, property and money to over twenty friends and relatives. Included in the land in Mountsorrel were Smiths Close, Branch Close and Moncks Close as well as land in the open fields of Hawcliffe and Thorncliffe. She left thirty pounds to Joseph Bolton of Wimeswold, mercer , cancelled the money he owed her and forgave him. To her servant Rebecca Hanson she left forty pounds and the bed whereon which I lye.
| Item | £-s-d |
| Purse & Apparel | 5-00-0 |
| In the house one table two forms four chairs six cushions one fire iron | 1-10-0 |
| In the upper parlor one trunk, one table,one cubbard, five chairs, one trundle bedstead, three cushions, one stoole | 1-00-0 |
| In the nether parlor two tables, five stooles, one glass case, one cubbard | 1-06-8 |
| In the kitching browning vessels brass and pewter | 8-15-0 |
| In the buttery five barrels, two thralls | 0-12-0 |
| In the best chamber one bedstead, beding, sevean chairs, two stooles, two trunks, one box, one chest of drawers, three stooles, two looking glasses | 5-00-0 |
| A chest of linen and plate | 9-00-0 |
| In the chamber over the house one trundle bed and beding, one press, one coffer, two strikes of malt | 3-00-0 |
| In the chamber over the neather parlor one bedstead and beding, two chairs, two stooles, two boxes and a pinchest | 4-00-0 |
| Wood and cole | 1-11-4 |
| Good debts | 200-00-0 |
| Debts desperate | 10-00-0 |
| Things not found or forgot | 0-15-0 |
The house= the best parlour
A trundle bedstead = a low bed, usually on wheels kept under a normal bed
Neather= lower
A thrall = a structure for holding barrels
A press = a large cupboard with shelves
A coffer = a box or chest for storing clothes or other valuables
A strike = a dry measure, usually ‘half a bushel (about 4 gallons), but varying locally’
Debts desperate = debts with little hope of recovery
Pinchest = don’t know
South End Shops
In this article I’ve set out my memories of shops in the village, from the Market Place to the south end. My recollections date from the late 1950s to the present day. If anyone has any additions or corrections to suggest, please don’t hesitate to contact us with your thoughts.
Linda Tyman.
Continue reading “South End Shops”