Portland Inn, Sherborne Street, Fairview, Cheltenham

Martin Edwards, a fellow pub historian, has compiled a list of pubs that were trading in Cheltenham in 1844 – early Victorian times and a long time ago! He has documented a public house called the Portland Inn with the address being in Albert Place, which is a continuation of Sherborne Street.

In February 1870 the Portland Inn was described in the Gloucester Journal as ‘having a large yard with extensive cellaring, with the dwelling house adjoining thereto and known as no 31 Sherborne Street.” 

The approximate site of the Portland Inn.

The Portland Inn was once tied to George Stibbs’ Cheltenham Steam Brewery, Albion Street. He was the owner of the licensed ale house in 1891 when the annual rateable value was set at £34.0s.0d. The business of Stibbs’ Cheltenham Steam Brewery was acquired by the avaricious Cheltenham Original Brewery in 1899.

In 1903 the Portland Inn had been absorbed into the estate of the Cheltenham Original Brewery, yet the annual rateable value fixed to the property had decreased by four pounds and five shillings to £29.15s.0d. The alehouse had a six-day licence, presumably closed on Sundays.

There is a reference to the Portland Inn in the 1924 Built-Leonard Directory, but it is not listed in 1925.

Local historian Alan Jones has suggested that a house fire in the property in the year 1955, long after it closed as a pub, may have prompted the clearance of the buildings to create the open space.

Gloucester Journal, 3rd April 1852:
 
Robert Hawkins, aged 18, was charged with stealing, at Cheltenham, on the 22d March, a half crown and other moneys belonging to John Hill, of the Portland Inn; there was a second count in the indictment charging the prisoner with having received the money knowing it to be stolen.
 
Mrs. Hill, landlady of the Portland Inn, Cheltenham, examined: On the morning of the 22d March, I marked a quantity of money, and put it in a purse, and locked it up in the till, no one being present. I missed some of the money the same morning. The money produced is some that I missed; I know it by the marks upon it which were made by a small file on the edge.
 
The prisoner, on being asked if he had any questions to put to the witness, said, Mrs. Hill knew he did not steal the money.
 
The witness said she did not know who stole it; her servant suspected him, but she did not. She missed the money and did not know who took it.
 
Sergeant Nightingale:  On 22d March, I arrested the prisoner in York-street, in his mother’s house. On searching him, I found five shillings and other pieces, some of which were marked in the manner described.
 
The prisoner, in his defence, said it was the first time he had ever been in a gaol, and he was as innocent as a child two years old.
 
The jury found the prisoner guilty of having received the money, knowing it to be stolen, and his Lordship sentenced him to three months’ imprisonment.
 
The above research and information courtesy Dr Martyn Beaufort.

Landlords at the Portland Inn include:

1844 J. Evans (Portland Inn, Albert Place)

1852 Mrs Hill

1859 John Rowland (listed as Portland Arms)

1870 John Rowlands and William Watts

1885,1891 George Stibbs

1902 James Henry Beadnell (Bednell in 1903)

1906 George E. Morris

1924 A.E.J. Watts (Built-Leonard Directory)

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