The Greenview Ale & Porter stores, an off-licence, was located in Victoria Street on the corner of Prospect Road. From here there are commanding views across the valley towards the woods of the Forest of Dean, perhaps the name given to the stores may have been inspired by the panorama… although it is easy to forget that when it was trading it would have overlooked an industrial landscape – hardly a green view then! It appears to have ceased trading by the end of the First World War. The late Ray Allen, a renowned Forest of Dean local historian, thought that it was also known as the Drum and Monkey.
The details listed below are believed to relate to the Greenview Ale & Porter Stores but there is an element of doubt as the 1891 and 1903 Gloucestershire licensing books simply refers to the premises as ‘having no name’. Therefore, I cannot guarantee that I have got these details right.
Jane Parsons was the owner of the premises in 1891 when it was free of brewery tie. William Thomas is listed as the occupier. In 1903 the store was owned by the Rock Brewery. The annual rateable value was set at £11.10s.0d. and it closed at 11 pm. Sales of alcohol were restricted to off the premises only.
The reference in 1903 to the Rock Brewery is intriguing. There was a Rock Brewery trading in Aberdare in Glamorgan at the beginning of the 19th century. But the succession of references for the 4 years from 1899 to 1903 tend to suggest that there was a Rock Brewery in Dursley. In 1899 there is mention of change of ownership from Mr Kibblewhite to Ambrose Drew (Rock Brewery Co.), but then in 1901 another reference gives details of Dursley Brewery Co., followed by the aforementioned 1903 licensing records of the stores when William Oakey was the occupier.
