70 Cricklade Street in 1939 directory. The building is of contrasting architectural styles. It is a three storey building, the upper floor is a twin gabled half timbered structure whilst the first two floors are constructed of brick and tile. The Brewers Arms was originally bought by T. & J. Arkell for £670 in 1869. In 2025 the Brewers Arms had been selling Arkell’s Kingsdown beer for an amazing 155 years!
There appears to be no obvious connection with the Cirencester Brewery, which was nearby.
The Citizen: Monday, November 9th, 1987: Darts. Brewers charge to Silver Dart triumph -The Citizen Silver Dart has been carried off to a new home in the Cotswold Hills. Gloucestershire’s most prized darts trophy was lifted by a side from the Brewers Arms, Cirencester, in an exciting gala finals night at Gloucester’s Top Cue club. The Brewers overcame a determined challenge from the ‘Merry Men’ of Cheltenham’s Russell Arms, who in an earlier round had beaten winners for the past two years, Bream Rugby Club. The Cheltenham outfit beat Gloucester’s Avenue Hotel 4-0 in their semi-final, but found the Cirencester marksmen in consistent form in the final.
Ronnie ‘Rocket’ Baxter, the landlord at the Brewers Arms between 2002 and 2005, was ranked number 3 in the Professional Darts Corporation rankings in 2005.
Above image. I. Lloyd Graham (Brewers Arms, December 2025)
BREWERS ARMS – Notes by John Tiffney
Three beer houses, in Cricklade Street, are entered in trade directories before 1856. One of them could have been the building that John Arkell of Arkell’s Kingsdown Brewery bought for £670 in 1869. The pub was rebuilt in the early twentieth century and probably incorporated one or two neighbouring cottages. The imposing timber framed and brick frontage was added at the same time. Ronnie (The Rocket) Baxter, a well known darts champion, was the landlord of the Brewers Arms for some years.
Licensing Details:
Owner in 1891: Arkell & Son, Kingsdown Brewery, Swindon
Rateable Value in 1891: £14.10s.0d.
Type of license in 1891: Beerhouse
Owner in 1903: Arkell & Son, Kingsdown Brewery, Swindon
Rateable Value in 1903: £14.10s.0d.
Type of license in 1903: Beerhouse
Closing time in 1903: 11pm
Landlords at the Brewers Arms include:
1871 William Goulding
1891 Otto Dannemann
1903 John Tanner
1910 W. Jordan
1939 Aug. Percy Cook
2002-2005 Ronnie ‘Rocket’ Baxter and Rachel Pallister
2006 Nicola Measor (daughter) and Georgina Williams (mother)
2008 Charles and Angela Hart (brother and sister) Moved from the Marlborough Arms