The 1891 and 1903 books, containing details of all licensed premises in Gloucestershire, both list an alehouse called Letters in Newnham on Severn. However, there are no contemporary listings of the Letters in Kelly’s or any other Gloucestershire directories. The location is not known – can anyone help?
H.T. Balfour owned Letters in 1891 and 1903 and it was free from brewery tie. Letters was licensed as an ale house but had a six-day licence, so it presumably closed on Sundays. The annual rateable value was set at £40.0s.0d. which tends to suggest it was quite a prestigious establishment. Closing time was at 11 pm. H.T. Balfour was also listed as occupier in 1891, and Temple L.Carter was resident at Letters in 1903.
The annual Brewster Sessions for the Newnham Petty Sessional Division held at the Littledean Petty Sessional Courthouse on Friday 4th February 1916 reported that the licence of the Letters Alehouse, Newnham, had been extinguished with compensation on the grounds of redundancy.
