73 Westgate Street in a 1927 reference. The inn was on the site of the present day Shire Hall between Berkeley Street and Upper Quay Street. The Old Bear was once tied to Gardner & Branch Crown Brewery of St. Marys Street. It later became an Arnold Perrett & Co. of Wickwar tied house. The Old Bear Inn was owned by the Cheltenham Original Brewery when it was referred to the Compensation Authority in March 1925. A report said that it had ‘stabling for thirteen horses and several carriers used it as a starting point. The condition of the house was not very good’.
A Disorderly House – Eliza Bennett, landlady of the Old Bear Inn, Westgate Street, was charged with keeping a disorderly house, by permitting drunkenness, and the assembling of bad characters. Defendant did not appear having sent word that she was unable to attend. PC Maggs said that on the 16th of March 1870 he visited the defendants house at eleven o’clock at night, and saw her and several other women very drunk, and using bad language. The defendant was not fit to be in the bar. He left, and returned again at twelve o’clock and ordered the house to be cleared. He had visited the house for the last four months, and had found the landlady drunk on several occasions, and not capable of looking after the place. On the previous Saturday night she was so drunk that witness had to call the next door neighbour to close the house. PC Haines said he was passing the defendants door about seven o’clock in the evening of the 16th March when he heard cries of ‘murder!’, and thinking that some persons were fighting, he went into the house, and found several persons very drunk. Three men and women were in the stable, and one of the women was lying down intoxicated, and he brought her out into the street, but finding that she could not stand, he took her to the police station. There was another charge against the defendant for allowing notoriously bad characters to assemble in the house
on the 24th March. PC Howe said that about ten o’clock on Sunday last he visited the defendants premises, and found four prostitutes and militia men, who were worse for drink in the front bar. Their conduct was very bad. He told the defendant that he should report the house. He went there again at half past eleven o’clock, when he found the defendant very drunk and asleep on the sofa. He believed it be one of the worst conducted houses in the City. Defendant was fined for the first offence twenty shillings and costs, and for the second thirty shillings and costs, or in default fourteen days for the first and a month imprisonment for the second. The mayor said the bench felt a great responsibility in transferring licenses. The way in which the house had been conducted was a proof that it was not wanted.
Landlords at the Old Bear include:
1856 H.A. Pittard
1859 George Watts
1870 Eliza Bennett
1879 W. Preedy
1885 Richard Brown
1893 R.H. Baggott
1902 Charles Trigg
1906,1908 Robert H. Baggott
1919 Thomas Agg
1927 Ernest J. Ferris
