It is thought that the Plough Inn was located on the right-hand side of the road heading towards Littledean, just before the parish boundary with Popes Hill. The Greyhound Inn at Popes Hill would have been nearby, but not necessarily trading at the same time.


From ‘The Pubs of the Royal Forest of Dean’ by Heather Hurley (Logaston Press, 2004)

‘Further along the A4151 [from Elton Corner], but on the opposite side [right] was a pub called the Plough, first mentioned in the Barrett family deeds dating from 1845 to 1853, and built on an encroachment on the Forest of Dean. The Barretts were followed in the 1870’s by Alfred Payne who appears to have served as the last landlord before the premises were converted to a grocery and provision store run by W.C. Cullen. Since being recorded in 1935 this store has long since closed.

The A4151 heads west to Littledean along a route that was turnpiked from Westbury in 1768. On the north side of the road at Popes Hill is the Greyhound, the only survivor of two beer houses recorded at Popes Hill in 1841. It may have replaced the Plough described in 1785 as ‘A Messuage at Blackmores Hall known by the sign of the Plough with a garden orchard.’ or it may have taken its name from a house called the Greyhound which had land in Flaxley and Westbury in 1683.’


The 1891 licensing book of Gloucestershire does not list the Plough, and it is likely that it had ceased trading by 1880.  Sarah Barnett is listed as grocer and inn keeper in the 1851 census, aged 50. She was also there five years later in 1856. In the 1876 Morris Commercial Directory Charles Mitchell is listed as a beer retailer in Elton.

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