Gloucester Journal – September 18th, 1880: A Stabbing Affray – On Saturday night, about 10 o’clock, a young man named James Philpotts, aged 21, a labourer working for Messrs Price & Co., timber merchants, Gloucester, was admitted to the infirmary suffering from a knife stab in the left side. It appears that Philpotts was at the Oddfellows Arms, Mite Street, on the evening in question, and received the stab wound from a woman of ill-repute with whom, it is to be presumed, he had had words. The sufferer is progressing favourably towards recovery and the woman who is alleged to have inflicted the injury, is remanded.
Gloucester Journal – February 1885: City Police – John Dobbs, of St Aldates Square, who did not appear, was summonded for assaulting Thomas Dodson, landlord of the Oddfellow’s Arms, Mitre Street. The landlord stated that the defendant came into his house and demanded some beer. As he was tipsy he declined to draw the beer, and the defendant then knocked him down and struck him. Fined £1 and costs, or a month’s hard labour.
The ‘Citizen’ newspaper dated 8th June 1902 gave a report on the Oddfellows Arms. An opponent to the pub is quoted as saying: “Oxbode Lane is the worst locality in Gloucester”. Godsell & Sons of Salmon Springs, Stroud owned the Oddfellows when it was submitted to the compensation authority for closure in 1909. The address given was Mitre Street, Gloucester.
Gloucestershire Echo, Friday 27th May 1910 – The Police Courts, Gloucester: FRIDAY – Before Messrs A, Slater (in the chair), and H.W. Bruton, Sidney S. Mitchell, landlord of the Oddfellows’ Inn, Oxebode Lane, was summoned for selling beer to a child under the age of 14 in an unsealed vessel. The defendant pleaded not guilty. Policeman Neville said the child in question, who was eleven years old, came out of the Oddfellows Arms just before closing time carrying a jug containing half-a-pint of beer under her apron. The landlady admitted to witness she had served the child, and that she had done wrong, but added that the little girl was her sister, and she did not think much of it. Defendant went into the box, and said that both his wife and himself were serving in the bar on the night of the 13th inst., as trade was brisk. He did not notice the child and knew nothing about the matter until P.S. Neville entered the house. She was not served with his connivance. The case was dismissed.
Landlords of the Oddfellows Arms include:
1885 Thomas Dodson
1879 W.Roberts (Odd Fellows Arms, Mitre Street)
1893 S.S. Mitchell
1906 E. Roper
1910 Sidney S. Mitchell
