Numbered 275 prior to renumbering, The Harp Inn stood on the eastern corner of the junction with Grove Street on the southern side of the High Street. It was previously known as the Hen & Chickens. The Golden Lion, if trading at the same time, was directly opposite. The Shakespeare Inn (now Shamrock) still stands on the western corner of Grove Street.
The Harp has been demolished for many years and the site of the pub is now just an advertising hoarding.
John Langford Righton was the owner of the Harp Inn in 1891. Righton & Co. were brewers at the Albion Brewery in Warwick Place (off Winchcombe Street) at this date. However, their business was in trouble as on 18th July 1891 the Anchor Brewery was offered for auction with two public houses, perhaps the Harp Inn was one of them.
The Anchor Brewery was owned by Henry Pointer in 1850. Rowes Cheltenham Illustrated Guide noted that ‘Mr Pointer’s Brewery ‘was known for the purity of its ‘home brew’d’ (he also listed there in 1859). He was succeeded by W.J. Clinch (recorded at the Anchor Brewery in 1868 and 1871), and James Henry Wheeler in 1883, followed just two years later by Clement John Cowell. With so many owners in just forty years it is perhaps surprising that the brewery was even taken on by Righton & Co. Maybe it was purchased as a property investment. It seems that the Anchor Brewery was acquired by Arnold, Perrett & Co.Ltd. who used it as their Cheltenham depot, immediately closing the brewery down.
But to complicate things, Cripps & Co. of the Cirencester Brewery were leaseholders of the Harp Inn in 1891. It obviously requires more research to determine why the Cirencester Brewery held the lease of the Harp from the Anchor Brewery. It was a humble beer house with an annual rateable value of £15.5s.0d. Twelve years later in 1903 the annual rateable value of the Harp Inn had increased by one pound and fifteen shillings to £17.0s.0d. It was then fully owned and tied to the Cheltenham Original Brewery.
It is believed that the Harp Inn closed in 1906, presumably surplus to requirements to the Cheltenham Brewery.
Birmingham Daily Gazette, Friday 30th Septeber 1864 – Robbery by Lodger in Cheltenham: A woman named Harriet Wood, wife of a carpenter, was charged with stealing three calico sheets, value 7s.6d. from the Harp Inn, the property of Soloman Surman. It appeared that the prisoner was lodger, and had engaged a bed at the Harp Inn from which she had taken the sheets, beside another one from an adjoining room, to which she had access. The prisoner pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six weeks’ imprisonment.
Gloucester Citizen, Thursday 26th February 1903 – Alleged Attempted Suicide: At the Cheltenham Police Court, Nicholas Cardell, a labouring man, 35 years of age, of Grove Street, was charged on remand with attempting to commit suicide on 17th February by drinking a quantity of liniment. Mrs F. Gwinnell, of the Harp Inn, Lower High Street, said prisoner and a woman named Annie Smith, visited her house on the 17th and prisoner was served with half a pint of beer and the lady with some ginger beer. Witness left the bar, and the man shortly afterwards went out returning in about ten minutes. Smith then called out “Mrs Gwinnell he is taking poison,” and witness ran into the bar and saw prisoner just removing the bottle produced from his mouth. Witness took the bottle off prisoner, and gave it to Mrs White, the mother of Annie Smith, who just entered the place. Prisoner said nothing, but drank the beer that was left in his cup, and then went outside and vomited. When prisoner and Annie Smith were talking in the bar witness heard prisoner say that if Smith would not go away with him he would put his head under an express train. A more quiet man witness had never known.
Cheltenham Chronicle, Saturday 2nd August 1913 – Castle & Bloss are instructed to sell by auction at the Kings Hall, North Street, Cheltenham, on Thursday 14th August 1913, at 5 o’clock precisely, subject to conditions of sale. The Freehold Corner Premises, up till lately known as The Harp Inn, 275 Lower High Street, Cheltenham, containing five bedrooms, large shop, kitchen, back-kitchen, garden. At present void.
Landlords at the Harp Inn include:
1841,1848 Thomas Bourne (273 High Street – then known as the Hen & Chickens)
1864, 1870 Solomon Surman
1878 William Chevalier
1883 Job Minty
1891 William Wheeler
1901,1903 Frederick Grinnell
1907 Francis Grinnell262