The following information on the Pelican Inn, a long lost Cheltenham pub, has kindly been submitted by Alan Jones.
When researching the locations of no-longer existing Cheltenham pubs, breweries etc for the series of walks I was compiling (Cheltenham ‘Ghost Pub’ Walks), which I am still looking for a publisher for, on the cheltonia.wordpress.com website, in the ‘Old Names’ section, under ‘Vanished Pubs’, I came across mention of the Pelican Inn, which it described as an “early inn thought to have existed by 1690 on the south side of the High Street.” Well, for ages I searched high and low and found nothing, and I was wondering if there was confusion with the Pelican Inn in Gloucester. the cheltonia website did say that it was “still there in the mid-eighteenth century but information is scarce.”
And they weren’t kidding: I was struggling to find any further mention anywhere.
But then, on the charltonparkcheltenham.org.uk website (not sure if this still exists), I tripped across the ‘Rough Guide Timeline: The Birth of a Town by Stephen Osmond and David Hanks (this does) – which said “1743 reference made to ‘The Pelican Inn near Lords Mead’ (Royal Well Area).” This didn’t make a lot of sense to me, because the area around the original well/spa discovered circa. 1716 by Mr. Mason was pretty undeveloped (other than the beginnings of the well/spa itself and the tree-lined avenue or walk leading to it from the churchyard; and according to the cheltonia website the inn existed before the 1716 discovery of the spring (by 1690).
I wasn’t sure where Lords Mead (or Meadow) itself was actually located, so I started by looking for this was located south and west of St. Mary’s Church (now Cheltenham Minster) running back towards the River Chelt, and Church Mead ran behind or beside it to the west (on the east side of Still’s Lane – now St. George’s Place). Royal Crescent was built on part of what was once Church Mead.
While hunting through drawers of old maps in Cheltenham library, I came across a hand drawn map (created rather later) but based upon a survey of the town drawn up circa. 1617 by John Norden for King James I. This shows the High Street (then known as Cheltenham Street or just The Street), with some of the key features marked on e.g. the Grammar School on the south side of the High Street, St. Mary’s Parish Church, Power’s Court House, the Plough Inn, and the Market and Booth Hall (on the south side of the High Street, between the church yard and the old town cross, which stood almost opposite what was then Greyhound Lane (now North Street) – pretty much where Clarence Street would later meet the High Street from the mid 1820s.
Behind the Market and Booth Hall, a black rectangle running lond side parallel with the High Street, an inn is marked (no name given – just marked “Inn”), with Lords Mead behind it. This puts it very close to the spot where the Eight Bells (later King’s, then Copperfield; now the 2 Pigs) is located) but it is too early for the Eight Bells.
The Eight Bells is shown marked on a 1787 map of Cheltenham which shows properties in the town owned by Corpus Christi College, Oxford – several of them pubs. The college was gifted these in trust as part of a charitable trust set up by Richard Pate, with incomes generated going towards helping fund the Grammar School set up by Pates in the 1570s: Corpus Christi was his alma mater. On this 1787 map (which can be seen in Cheltenham Local History Society Journal no. 15 from 1999, in an article entitled A 1787 Map of Cheltenham by James Hodsdon pg. 33-41).
The Eight Bells (marked “8 Bells”) is not marked as a Corpus Christi property: the college’s properties are all marked as dark blocks. But a rectangle of land immediately behind it, running alongside the church yard is marked in black. Interestingly, on both the map based on Norden’s 1617 survey and the 1787 map showing Corpus Christi properties in Cheltenham, the unnamed inn and the ‘8 Bells’ are depicted as rectangular plots running long side parallel to the High Street (east-west), whereas the 2 Pigs runs long side at right angles to the High Street. Moreover, in the 1787 map, apart from the High Street itself, all names are written on a north-south line, except the ‘8 Bells’, which is written east-west (at right angles to everything else), emphasizing that alignment.
Furthermore, in An Historical Gazetteer of Cheltenham, also published by James Hodsdon, he notes of the Pelican Inn that there could be “perhaps a Pate’s charity connection”, highlighting that “the pelican appears on the arms of Corpus Christi College [in the upper left quadrant of the shield] and is used to mark various of its properties in the lower High Street area.” An example of this can be seen between the 2nd and 3rd floor windows of the hairdresser’s shop on the western side of the junction of the High Street and Henrietta Street (formerly Fleece Lane) – opposite where the Fleece Hotel used to stand until its 1967 demolition (now where a Premier Inn hotel is located). Until 1800, the property where the hairdressers is now, was an inn called the Ram Inn, owned by Corpus Christi. The original building was demolished and replaced by shops by 1819 (and has obviously been redeveloped since then).
I think the Pelican Inn stood by the church yard on a plot behind the Market and Booth House running through to where Clarence Road is now. I think the Eight Bells originally stood on this plot – or much of it; but at some point it was reduced in size such that the alignment changed somewhat from east-west to more north-south – that is to say, part of the land that the Pelican and probably early Eight Bells occupied, was lost (possibly to the development of Clarence Street and the buildings on its western side).
Now back to the reference to a 1743 mention of the Pelican Inn mentioned in the Rough Guide Time Line: The Birth of a Town. I found this in The Court Books of the Manor of Cheltenham 1692 – 1803 (also edited by James Hodsdon) and published by the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 2010. Under the “View of frankpledge with court baron of 18 April 1743, before William Prinn, steward” Entry 1941 contains the following:
“Presented by the homage that o 3 Jan. 1726/7 out of court before William Alexander and John Prinn, William St Leger of Cheltenham barber and James Beckett of Cheltenham gent. (who had contracted with St Leger to purchase the reversion of Lord’s Mead freehold in Cheltenham, and all its customary holdings in the possession of Charles Waring, Toby Lambert, and Thomas Ransford between a house of William Cook E and another Thomas Ransford W, and the court next the Street set out by merestones from the house and ground of the same Thomas Ransford and of the lower court and buildings there and of the Great Garden used now or late with said Charles Waring’s house and of the orchard thereto joining on the E bounded by the Pelican Inn land and W by land of Catherine Packer widow from the N end of the Great Garden to Lord’s Mead…” [my bold]
It’s pretty dense stuff, but as you can see mentions both Lord’s Mead and the Pelican Inn.
Later, in an entry from the “Court baron of 18 March 1794, before Thomas Markham, steward” Entry 3346 the information detailed is:
“John Hayward and his wife Esther surrender for Samuel Harward of Cheltenham stationer 2 adjoining houses on the S side of Cheltenham Street [High Street], with their yards, gardens, barns, stables and outhouses, and orchard behind, and inclosure of meadow or pasture next to the orchard, all of which are bounded by the Colonade Buildings and a garden lying behind the same E [these were the buildings between what is now Clarence Street and the Promenade], by freeland or demesne land of John Hayward called Lord’s Mead S, by the Eight Bells inn, land of Mary Barrett widow, and land lately purchased by Samuel Hayward from William Bailey and others W, and by Cheltenham Street N; also a small parcel of meadow at the S end of Lord’s Mead called heretofore Halfpenny Croft, bounded by the road leading out of Church Mead to the Well Bridges W and by the river Chelt S; excepting firstly a piece of ground, adjoining the Street and the Eight Bells, which is now set out with stakes, extending 60 ft back from the Street, and secondly the seat or pew under the gallery on the S side of Cheltenham church.”
Again, I think this indicates the correlation between the locations of the Eight Bells and the earlier Pelican Inn – both just of the High Street, near the church and Lord’s Mead.
One more piece in the puzzle…
In an article entitled Behind the Eight Bells: A Glimpse of Old Cheltenham by Terry Moore-Scott in CLHS Journal no. 14 from 1998, he reports on an old roof truss embedded in a wall on the east side of the Eight Bells garden area, where an extension was being built. The article contains a photo of the wooden truss beams with a wall built around them, indicating a building running off towards Clarence Street on an east-west alignment. He describes the roof truss as being “of a simple typically 18th-century style, comprising straight-cut timbers consisting of a horizontal tie beam about 7m long and about 2.5m above modern ground level, two principal rafters (with purlin slots) and angle trusses” and describes them as being “of no archaeological or architectural significance.” But I think this might have been a remnant of the earlier inn (or one of its buildings!). Scott-Moore himself states, “Nor is it obvious why the roof truss alone should have been incorporated into the later boundary wall.” So a later wall was built around this roof truss which ran at right-angles to it. He concludes, “what we see today [1997] was a gable end or a central bay, but it seems distinctly possible that the original building, whatever its purpose, was one of those sacrificed to make way for the laying of Clarence Street in 1827.”
don’t want to
I cannot help but wonder if he missed a trick? Was the wall built around this awkwardly-shaped obstacle to commemorate an earlier, larger, important building? Did the Eight Bells represent a diminution of its larger, perhaps more illustrious precursor? There is evidence to perhaps support this.
Still, having felt pretty sure that all these pieces fitted together and that I had discovered (or rediscovered) the location of this all-but-lost-and-forgotten ‘Ghost Pub’ for inclusion in my walks, I thought that I had better check. So I contacted Jill Waller of CLHS, whom I knew had access to local legendary pub historian Vic Cole’s archives, and asked if she had any information pertaining to the location of the Pelican Inn.
She was a little reticent to share at first, saying that in the past she had done so, only for people to steal her thunder…so I want to make it extremely clear that further research I refer to was Jill’s.
After undertaking further excellent research, she confirmed that she agreed with my location for the Pelican Inn. I was elated (because that is all I was trying to do for the walks – pinpoint its location), but her research has revealed so much more – about the size and value of the inn and even taking its existence back further than 1617 (into the late 16th century).
Jill is writing an article for publication in a CLHS journal (hopefully this year – 2026), and I don’t want to steal her thunder or be accused of plagiarism, but she has shared her research with me, and I am sure that she has identified a landlord of the Pelican Inn who appears to have been there in 1597 (tracking back fines for breaking the assize i.e. serving short measures, and allowing gambling etc.). Surely, this would make it one of the earliest of the town’s known pubs and landlords…and the location would make much more sense than at the other end of Lord’s Mead, being close to the then centre of the town, the market and the church.
She also found in the parish registers information for the burial of Robert Smith, “innkeeper of the Pelican” buried 6 Dec 1686…and an “inventory of Robert Smyth of Cheltenham, innkeeper, dated 1 Dec 1686, which gives an indication of the scope and scale of the pub at that time, including details of property found in various chambers (e.g. the gatehouse chamber, a room called “the Bear”, the Great chamber), as well as indicating cellars, wine cellars, parlours, yards, stables…even a st of nine pins and bowls (indicating a bowling green)….and in 1686 having a total worth of over £235! Even then, it was not an insubstantial premises or business.
Of course, it doesn’t tell us how long the Pelican had existed for by the time this landlord was being a naughty boy! But here is a little musing…a flight of fancy (or fantasy!).
Richard Pate – founder of Pate’s Grammar School in the 1570s – was a student of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. In the 1540 he was one of the Commissioners charged with closing down church chantry properties. Several of which he purchased cheaply. Corpus Christi came to own lots of properties around the town as part of a trust to help fund the Grammar School.
Might the property close to the church have been church chantry property? …Might it have been acquired by Pate? …Might he have seen a business opportunity to open an inn (and name it after an element of his college’s emblem? (The Pelican in her piety featured in the top left quadrant, remember).
Richard Pate’s father, Walter Pate, was a butcher, a chandler…and an innkeeper. I am not suggesting that Walter ever ran the Pelican Inn. Just that innkeeping and business as in the family. Jill Waller also compiled a book entitled A Chronology of Crime and Conflict in Cheltenham containing information collected by members of CLHS. In it, it states, that Walter Pate, the father of Richard Pate “was frequently mentioned in the Cheltenham Manor Court for breaking the assize as a butcher, baker and…chandler” – adding “He also kept an inn and was fined for overcharging.” Meanwhile, in In the Mault House: Four Hundred Years of Malting and Brewing in Cheltenham by Sally Self (CLHS Journal no. 32 from 2016), she relates of Cheltenham’s innkeepers that the earliest mention comes in 1527, when the two earliest mentioned were Henry Corston and Walter Pate.
And although this would have been too early for the Pelican (Richard hadn’t attended college yet), it does show that innkeeping was something known to the family.
I have no evidence whatsoever to connect the Pates and the Pelican – as I say, at this stage it is just a fanciful musing. But the Pelican Inn did definitely exist.