Steam Mills is located just to the north of Cinderford on the A4151 road, not far from the junction with the A4136 at Nailbridge. The name given to the pub might have been a reference to a winding engine at the nearby Northern United Colliery.
The Gloucester Journal reported that the Old Engine, Upper Bilson, East Dean was to be sold by auction on Monday, the 18th day of April 1870. As the Forest Steam Flour Mills and Brewery had been set up in Mitcheldean by Thomas Wintle in March 1869 can we assume that the Old Engine was one of the first pubs to be acquired by the Forest Brewery? Francis Wintle is listed as the owner in of the Old Engine in 1891 and 1903 when the annual rateable value of the alehouse was set at £30.0s.0d. It closed at 11 pm.
When the Forest Brewery put their tied estate up for sale in 1923 the Old Engine Inn inventory described a ‘serving bar, large public bar, smoke room, kitchen, sitting room and covered yard with Pot House, W.C., etc.’ The first floor had three living rooms. To the rear there was a ‘Coach house, Stabling for four with loft over, good open yard, closet and urinal. Nice strip of garden.’
Lydney Observer, Friday 18th August 1989 – The end of the line for the Old Engine? Steam Mills could be without a pub again now that the Old Engine is up for sale. For health reasons, the owners Lloyd and Mary Wilce, are having to give up the pub which they reopened when they acquired the premises 20 years ago. This is at a time when the Town Council is aiming to give Steam Mills a new look and to improve leisure facilities there. The recreational ground has been fenced and plans are well ahead for ythe formation of a six-rink outdoor bowling green, a facility long awaited in the Cinderford area. The Council plans to landscape the field to make it more attractive but needs a steady income from Sunday markets which have been intermittently there for the past year.
The Old Engine has always been a focus of community life in the locality; before it was re-opened as apub, it was used as the village hall. And where the premises were originally licensed, it had the doubtful notoriety of being the pub from which the mob rushed out to kill the bears.
Now, Mr Wilce, who has problems with his eyesight and Mrs Wilce, who has also been unwell recently, are reluctantly selling the pub and its future is uncertain. If a new owner is not found who can continue with the licensed trade the building, with the land surrounding it, could – if planning consent were forthcoming – be sold for housing re-development.
Mr Wilce has been a loyal councillor in Cinderford for some 40 years, serving not only on the Town Council (where in earlier days he used to top the polls at elections) but also on the former East Dean Rural District Council when he was at one time chairman of the housing committee. He also played a leading part in the licensing of the Miners’ Welfare Hall and was vice-chairman of the hall committee and steward for three years.
Old Engine Inn closed on 3rd April 2001. The property is now in private occupancy but there is still a plastic ‘Toby Bitter – Old Engine Inn’ pub sign giving an indication of its former use.
Landlords at the Old Engine include:
1856 E. Teague
1869 William Matthews (Old Engine Inn, township of East Dean)
1870 Thomas Mathews (Old Engine, Drybrook – Gloucestershire Chronicle)
1885 Tom Miles
1891 Enoch Smith
1902 Idris Thomas
1903 Thomas James
1906 Idris Thomas
1919 Charles Hayward
1927 Thomas James
1989 Lloyd and Mary Wilce