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This Staff Of Life was
Situated at Smedley's Buildings, later known as West End. Sometimes it was
said to be on Church Street, as the side of the building did face onto
Church Street. It's first directory entry in 1830 placed it on 'Windmill
Hill'.
Built in 1760, a windmill and bakery stood at the back of the original
building which gave it its name. The idiom “Staff of Life” refers to bread
being a staple food. John and William Chambers also worked the Mill during
their occupancy, with John Chambers described as a "Miller and Brewer" in
1876. The Windmill was still marked at the rear of the building on the 1877
map.
In 1842, William Chambers was summoned to the Town Hall and “ordered to pay
costs, for allowing dominos to be played in his house”.
In May 1880, the property was put up for auction and was described as having
a "five sail stone wind corn mill adjoining". In 1881, John Chambers was a
publican, a miller and a brewer.
The Staff of Life was bought by the Home Brewery Company, Daybrook,
Nottingham, sometime before 1920, when they went to court to remove George
Duckmanton, describing him as “an undesirable tenant”.
The local council decided that the building needed to be removed, to widen
Church Street and improve visibility on what was then considered a dangerous
corner. In January 1964 the brewery denied rumours that the new pub was
going to be built on the site of the old one. In March 1967, a “new look”
for the Staff of Life was unveiled in the local press and by May 1968 the
new pub was opened, on the same corner as the old one, but set further back
from both roads and including a large car park to the side. Between 1832 and
1940, the pub had been looked after by eleven different landlords (an
average of a decade apiece) but Mr Sam Sadler remained as Landlord for 27
years until October 1967, when the old building was demolished. |
