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There were two licenced
premises in Sutton-in-Ashfield known by the name Travellers Rest, both
trading at the same time in different areas of the town. This property was
on Club Street.
Club Street was a street of crowded and poor quality housing, stretching
from the Upper Green to Low Street.
Two census returns, the 1871 and 1891 returns, recorded The Travellers Rest
as being at 4 Club Street, while the 1901 census lists it next to number 4.
Street numbering seems to have changed by 1911. Based on the description of
the property given in 1908, and the fact it had a stable, it would have been
36 yards from the Brick and Tile Inn, and was most likely one of the two
larger buildings in the alley marked on the map.
In May 1868, William Rhodes of the Travellers Rest was elected a member of
the Beerhouse Keepers Association (Sutton branch) and in 1869 was granted a
certificate under the new “Beerhouse Act of 1869”.
Also in that year William Rhodes, “the landlord”, gave evidence when three
men were summoned to court for “being drunk and disorderly and refusing to
quit the Travellers Rest Public House”.
In June 1886, at the “house of Mr William Limb, the Travellers Rest, Sutton”
they held an annual cabbage show, where “some excellent specimens were
exhibited”.
The Traveller’s Rest was in the news again in February 1888, but for a less
pleasant reason. The landlord, printed in the newspaper as “George Hardwick”
(likely a typo for Hardy) was summoned for permitting drunkenness on his
licenced premises. Henry Bradshaw had been observed by a policeman leaving
the beerhouse drunk, and going into the Brick and Tile, where they refused
to serve him. He then returned to the Travellers Rest where the same
policeman found him in the taproom having been served more beer. Bradshaw
was fined 7 shillings for being drunk. The landlord, who had been twice
cautioned already, admitted he was in the stable at the time of the offence
and that his wife had provided the beer. He was fined 40 shillings and
informed that his licence would be endorsed.
In June 1908 the Nottingham Evening Post reported that the Travellers Rest
on Club Street was one of two pubs that would be closed. The owners at the
time were the Nottingham Brewery, and the tenant was William Isaac
Woodhouse. Arguing in front of the Compensation committee in favour of
closure, the property was described as:
“A beer-house situated in a narrow passage off Club-street, which was one of
the worst in Sutton, being only sufficiently wide to admit a cart. The place
was difficult of supervision, and was in a low part of the town. The nearest
licenced house was within 36 yards. This was an ante-1869 house.”
A separate article, printed in the Nottingham Journal, added that “the house
was not properly constructed”. The tenant, confirming that he had entered
the house in 1906, said he had made a “good and satisfactory living.”
The Brewery’s representative also pointed out that there had been no
complaints against the landlord and the house was very much frequented as
“all houses in Sutton are”. The auditor of the Nottingham Brewery
additionally stated that “in 1905, 327 barrels were sold, in 1906 370, and
in 1907 303, an average of 334 barrels a year”. Despite this, the committee
decided that the licence should not be renewed and that compensation should
be awarded.
Despite their claim that the building was "not properly constructed", the
buildings along that alley were not demolished until the late 1960s. when
construction of the new shopping centre began. Its approximate location is
now either covered by the Idlewells Shopping Centre or the service yard that
runs from the Idlewells Centre to Market Street, behind the YMCA charity
shop. |
