The Anchor was a simple brick built building which was part of a row of terraced houses. It was a tied house of the Stroud Brewery Company. The Anchor Inn is recorded at 44 Sweetbriar Street in 1936. The Anchor had successful darts and crib teams. The Anchor Inn was demolished some time after 1957 when it was sold to the County Borough of Gloucester for £1,350. Sweetbriar Street was in the area of Gloucester called Clapham, characterised by back-to-back houses.
Gloucester Journal, Saturday 9th March 1929 – Successful opposition was made at the adjourned licensing committee for the city to an application for the referring of the Anchor Inn, Sweetbriar Street, Gloucester.
Jim Holder submitted the above photograph to the ‘Citizen’ for the ‘bygones’ feature of the paper. (date 27th June 2005). It shows the successful Anchor Inn crib team with their silverware. c.1950. In the back row, from left to right are: Tom Knight, John Burford, George Holder, George Iles, Fred Maysey and Albert Westbury. Front row – left to right: Dave Hillyard, Charlie Phelps, Vic Byard (landlord), Les Brown and Jimmy Sawyer.
Leslie Knight, of Tuffley, submitted the above photograph to the ‘Citizen’ for the ‘bygones’ feature of the paper. (date 12th July 2002). It shows the Anchor Inn Ladies Darts Team, holding the silverware they won in the 1950/51 season of the Gloucester City Ladies Darts League. Those identified are Eunice Smith (fourth from left, back row), Doreen Head (fifth from left in the back row – she was landlady of the Fox & Elms Inn, Stroud Road), next to her is Mrs A. Hill while the woman on the right of the back row is Miss Winkle, Eunice Smith’s sister. In the front row Lil Lawrence is on the extreme right.
Landlords at the Anchor Inn include:
1879 J. Lewis
1893 Mrs M.J. Duffy
1906 A.F. Duffy
1923, 1936 Mrs Annie Lane
1957 Victor Leslie Byard