Numbered 171 originally and latterly 295. It stood opposite the bowling green.
Richard Birt was the owner of the Full Moon in 1891 when the operating licence was free from brewery tie. It had an annual rateable value of £85.0s.0d. By the beginning of the Edwardian era at the start of the 20th century the Full Moon had been acquired by Showell & Co., brewers of Oldbury in Staffordshire (now part of the West Midlands). In 1903 the annual rateable value of the alehouse had increased by £8.10s. to £93.10s.0d. Showell’s were acquired by Samuel Allsopp in 1914.
Advertisement: Gloucestershire Echo, Saturday 13th January 1900.
Full Moon Hotel, High Street, Cheltenham. Call and see Grand New Billiard Room. Showell’s Celebrated Ales. Wines and Spirits of the Best Quality. Choice Cigars.
In the mid to late 1970’s I can remember the Full Moon as an Ind Coope pub, part of Allied Breweries – one of the ‘Big 6’ (which also included Ansells of Birmingham and Tetleys of Leeds). Beers on offer at the Full Moon included keg Double Diamond but traditional Ind Coope Bitter from Burton on Trent was also on tap. I think the stronger Burton Ale – a fine beer – was also available. Other Ind Coope pubs in Cheltenham at the time included the Britannia, Brown Jug, Kemble Brewery, St Albans (Dobells), Restoration and the Welsh Harp.
The Full Moon had a small front bar and a lounge bar to the rear. A corridor led to the garden.
Just before the Full Moon closed down in the early 1980’s it had been refurbished as a Halls Oxford and West tied house; a division of Allied Breweries. A Halls ceramic plaque was inlaid into the wall and the branding gave the impression that beers came from an Oxford brewery. The brewery did not actually exist. It had been taken over and closed by Samuel Allsopp & Sons in 1926. A clever but devious marketing strategy with all Halls beers brewed in Burton on Trent. Halls Harvest Bitter was hardly distinctive, so despite the elaborate marketing rebranding the beers never found much favour with real ale fans.
In recent years the building has been used for various purposes including a video shop and a succession of cafés, but there is nothing to indicate that it was once a pub. The Hall’s ceramic plaque has long gone.
Landlords at the Full Moon include:
1844 Peter Herbert
1856,1859 Thomas Clarke
1870 Henry Clarke
1878,1891 Richard Birt (Richard was born in Worcester in 1846)
1902 George Davies (George Albert Davis in 1903)
1906 Frank George Oliver
1919 Mrs Edith G. Dance
1927 James F. Foxworthy
1939 Raymond H.K. Phillips
1955 William T. Orpin
