Gloucester Journal. Saturday April 16th 1870: Billiards. On Monday evening the match for five pounds a side ‘Championship of the County’, was played at the Plough Hotel, between Edward Hodges of that place, and Thomas Thornbury, of Gloucester. Notwithstanding the advantage to the Cheltenham representative in playing on his own table, Thornbury was made the favourite. The game began at twenty minutes past seven by Thornbury given the usual miss in baulk, both playing cautiously, and the scoring was very slow. The only breaks of twenty or upwards were made – Thornbury 21,24,25,20,26,26,32 and 28; and by Hodges 26,20 and 30. When the latter had reached 503, Hodges was at 400 and the game stood at the finish – Thornbury, 1,001. Hodges, 923. There were two intervals.
The Plough Hotel was truly a well-appointed establishment. In the year 1891 the annual rateable value was set at £595.0s.0d. Only the prestigious Queens Hotel in the Promenade was rated at a higher value. The Plough Hotel is recorded as a licensed ale house and being fully owned by the Cheltenham Original Brewery in 1891. The rates had decreased significantly by the time of the next licensing return in 1903 to £510.0s.0d. – a reduction of £85 for which I can offer no explanation unless the Victorian valuation included a parcel of land excluded twelve years later. Another anomaly is that the Original Brewery are listed as lease holders in 1903 rather than outright owners. Jonadab McCarthy is recorded as owner.
The Citizen: 18th May, 1982: News in Brief – The multi-million pound Plough site development off Cheltenham High Street, was given the go-ahead by the borough council last night. A special council meeting voted overwhelmingly to back plans for the site itself, extensions to the Everyman Theatre and the building of an overhead walkway linking the development and Cavendish House
The Plough Hotel was demolished in 1983 and is now the site of the Regent Arcade. The old facade of the Plough Inn has been used as a model for the reconstruction of the arcade entrance.
Landlords / Proprietors at the Plough Hotel include:
1830 James Neyler
1844, 1859 John Benjamin Churchill
1870 Joseph Rolls (manager)
1878 Plough Hotel Company; H.J. Cochrane (secretary)
1883 Plough Hotel Company
1903,1906 Walter Chapple
1919 Miss H. Powell
Landlords of the Plough Hotel Tap:
1870 Joseph Rolls
1878 William Hill
1883 J. Gibbs
