Steam Mills is located just to the north of Cinderford on the A4151 road, not far from the junction with the A4136 at Nailbridge.
In 1891 and 1903 the Mitre Inn, a beer house, had an annual rateable value of £22.10s.0d. It was a tied house of Francis Wintle’s Forest Brewery in Mitcheldean. The pub closed at 11 pm each night.
When the Forest Brewery put their tied estate up for sale in 1923 the Mitre Inn was described as ‘well placed to command local and passing trade’. It was a substantial stone-built building with a ‘serving bar, public bar, smoke room, kitchen, smaller kitchen, club room, pot house and W.C.’on the ground floor. There were six rooms upstairs and to the rear there was a public urinal and closet. The Mitre Inn had ‘cellarage in the basement’
Gloucester Citizen, Friday 27th May 1910 – Sudden death at Steam Mills: An inquest was held on Wednesday by Dr Macartney, at the Mitre Inn, Steam Mills, upon Edward Miller James, aged 74, a retired inn-keeper. Agnes Thomas, wife of Idris Thomas, landlord of the Mitre Inn, said the deceased was her father. He had been in excellent health since he cut his throat in September 1906 than before. He had not required medical attendance since that year. He slept alone, and she heard no voice during the night of the 23rd. At 8.30 the next morning, when she took his breakfast up to him, she found her father dead. He was in bed lying on his left side with his head bolstered up with pillows, with his face towards the window. – Dr David Reid Campbell deposed that he had made a post-mortem examination, and death was due, in his opinion, to a fatty heart and syncope. – Verdict accordingly.
Gloucester Journal, Saturday 6th March 1926 – Forest of Dean licences: In respect to the Mitre Inn, Steam Mills, Supt. Shelswell said the house was in very good condition and spotlessly clean. There was another house, The Old Engine, not far away. The accommodation at the Mitre Inn was good. Mr Bennett said the house belonged to Wintle’s Brewery, Ltd. In the last three years the average number of beer barrels consumed was 160 per year, and cider 178 barrels per year. There was also a good trade in bottled beer and minerals. Tobacco and biscuits were also sold.
Trade at the Old Engine was about the same; at holiday and week-ends both houses were often full. Charles Percy Hunt, the tenant, said his living depended practically on this house. At busy times the house was full. Mr Haddock submitted that for the trade done both the houses at Steam Mills should remain. If one was done away with, at busy times one of the houses would be over-crowded.
The court renewed the licence.
Below – Conveyance and assigment of properties of the Wintles Brewery Limited (in liquidation) to the Cheltenham Original Brewery. Document dated 7th May 1937.
Gloucester Citizen, Saturday 15th February 1958: The beerhouse on-licence of the Mitre Inn, Steam Mills, was allowed to lapse.
Landlords at the Mitre Inn include:
1891 Edward James
1902 Thomas James
1903 Jaris Thomas (sic) (beer retailer. Could Jaris Thomas be a corruption of Thomas James?)
1923 (May) ‘transfer of licence from Albert George Payne to Charles Percy Hunt’)
1923,1926 Charles Percy Hunt
1937,1939 Charles Henry Dowding