The 1885 Kellys Directory gives details of the Laburnham Brewery Inn and another reference in 1906/7 Matthews Gloucester Directory gives the address as 2 High Street, Tredworth.
The Laburnham Hotel was situated on the corner of Tredworth High Street and Ryecroft Street. John Apperley is recorded as a brewer at the Laburnham Brewery. The beers were also available at the Beehive Inn, Millbrook Street. It is likely that the brewery was to the rear of the Laburnham Hotel but I have found no contemporary advertisements for Apperley’s Home Brewed Ale at the Laburnham Hotel.
An advert in 1894 (County Adverts)
J.Apperley & Co – Brewers and wine & Spirit Merchants. Laburnham Brewery, Gloucester. Home Brewed Mild and Bitter Ales and Invalid Stout. Established 1842.
There is a brick building across the road in Hopewell Street, which looks like it could have once been a brewery.
The Laburnham Hotel was trading in the early 1960’s but the actual date of closure is not known. The building is now in use as the Ryecroft Bail Hostel and there is no visible evidence to suggest that it was once a pub. There used to be an entrance to the pub in the High Street between the two bay windows but this has now been bricked up.
In September 1991 there was some controversy when it was admitted that an accused murderer had stayed at the Ryecroft Hostel. A concerned local resident said: “We have a school near the hostel and it worries some of the mums.” The County’s senior probation officer sympathised and said: “Bail hostels are used for remand prisoners who have nowhere else to go, or have been told by the courts to stay away from friends and family. The magistrates are always very careful about who they allow out on bail and in most cases are petty criminals. They would not knowingly allow anyone who was a threat to the community on bail.”
Landlords at the Laburnham Brewery / Hotel include:
1879 John Apperley (Laburnham Brewery, Barton Terrace)
1885 John Apperley
1893 J.T. Folley (Laburnham Hotel)
1902,1906 William Matthews
1919 Charles A. Smith
1927 Francis Granville Cousins
1936 R.R. Mabley
1939 Mrs Edith Mabley
1959 Paddy Butler
