Gloucester Journal: December 2nd, 1882 – Charles Harding, of the Heywood Inn, was summoned by Sergeant Hawkins, on a charge of drunkenness and disorderly conduct on his own premises on the night of the 23rd November. Fined 20s. and costs.
The Heywood Inn was located at the far end of Heywood Road at the sharp bend near Woodgate Road. The address was 32 Heywood Road. The pub overlooked Bilson Green. This was once the site of the Northern United colliery and the associated railway sidings, etc. Custom must have come from miners at the colliery. In October 1949 it was reported that there was a mounting concern over the open pits at Lower High Street, Cinderford, and near the Heywood Inn where they were said to be half full of water and unprotected.
It is recorded in the 1891 licensing book that the Heywood Inn was a beer house and was operating free from brewery tie. The owner was William Critchley. It appears to have been sold to Ind Coope & Co. twelve years later in 1903. In those years the annual rateable value was £20.0s.0d. The ownership of the Heywood Inn by the Burton on Trent brewery was not too last very long as the Heywood Inn had become a tied house of Arnold, Perrett & Co.’s Wickwar Brewery by the First World War. It had changed ownership to Cheltenham Original Breweries by 1937, and thence to West Country Breweries / Whitbread.
In the fourth edition of CAMRA’s ‘Real Ale in Gloucestershire’, published in July 1978, the Heywood was described rather vaguely as a ‘typical Whitbread town local.’ Whitbread (West Country) PA was sold on hand pump.
On 23rd March 1989 the Gloucester Citizen reported that: ‘Whitbread Flowers have bid a fond farewell to licensee Mary Wynn, aged 77, who is retiring from the Heywood Inn, Cinderford, after more than 50 years behind the bar. Simon Ellicott, Whitbread Flowers area manager, presented Mary with a barometer on behalf of the company’.
Steve Harborne’s excellent ‘Real Ale in Gloucestershire’ web pages contain a comprehensive list of closed pubs. Steve has noted that the Heywood Inn closed on 1st January 1990.
The pub has been demolished and houses now occupy the site of the Heywood Inn.
Landlords at the Heywood Inn include:
1867 William Leedham
1869 George Rudge
1878 William Critchley
1881 John Preddy
1882 Charles Harding
1891 John Bennett
1891 Milson Huzzy
1891-1897 John Russell
1899 Mrs Russell
1902,1903 John Russell (beer retailer at Haywood Lane in 1902)
1910 Levi Brain
1935 Sydney Howells
1939 George Richards
1989 Mary Wynn (retired in March 1989 after more than 50 years behind the bar. She was 77)
