The Bakers Arms was numbered No.250 in 1870. The Bakers Arms stood near the railway bridge on the southern side of the High Street. The site of the Bakers Arms is now occupied by JR Laboratories. (Opticians) at 456 High Street.
In the 1891 and 1903 licensing books the Bakers Arms was a licensed beer house which was free of brewery tie. Maurice Bellamy was the owner in 1891 and Martha Ann White was both owner and occupying landlady in 1903. The Bakers Arms had an annual rateable value of £15.5s.0d. in 1891 which had increased by 15/- to £16.0s.0d. in 1903.
The ’Echo’ newspaper featured an interview with Doug Clifford on 11th December 1990.
On the evening of 11th December 1940, during an air raid, a bomb went over the railway line and landed in the garden of the Bakers Arms causing extensive damage to the rear of the pub and roof. A bomb had already exploded at 9.30 pm in the nearby gas works prompting Mr and Mrs Clifford to wake up their two sons from their upstairs room and move them downstairs. Doug Clifford, then aged 11, and his brother Michael aged 7 had a lucky escape. Doug told the Gloucestershire Echo in December 1990 that they escaped by scrambling out of the front door of the pub and headed for an air-raid shelter in Swindon Road. “It was frightening of course but I was probably too young to realise what was happening. The whole thing went on half the night.” After the bomb had caused extensive damage to the Bakers Arms trade continued for a short while under a tarpaulin. The Bakers Arms was eventually pulled down in February 1941.
Landlords at the Bakers Arms include:
1878,1883 Eliza Crowther
1891 William White
1903 Martha Ann White
1926 William Browning (beer retailer)
1940 Mr Clifford
