Flaxley Street is in a residential area just to the east of Cinderford town centre. The Red Lion, a sandstone built terraced pub, was first licensed in 1869. In 1891, 22 years later, it had an annual rateable value of £18.0s.0d. and was classified as a beer house which was free of brewery tie. John Millwaters is recorded as the owner and occupier. In 1901 he sold to Red Lion to Francis Wintle’s Forest Brewery. The details of sale described it as a ‘valuable old established free beer house’.
When the pubs of the Forest Brewery were put up for sale in 1923 the Red Lion was described as stone built and ‘nicely placed to command a thriving trade’. On the ground floor there was a ‘bar, tap room, smoke room, kitchen, sitting room, larder, etc. Upstairs there were four rooms and a club room. To the outside there was a wash house, W.C., public urinal, stone erection of stabling with entrance from Flaxley Lane, brick pig cot and a ‘nice strip of garden.’
Ownership of the Red Lion passed to Cheltenham Original Brewery and then to Cheltenham & Hereford / West Country Breweries. It is thought that the pub called ‘last orders’ for the last time in the late 1960’s / early 1970’s.
The property is now in residential use. The only visible sign that the building was once a pub is a defined rectangular arrangement of bricks within the sandstone façade that once housed a ‘West Country Ales – Best in the West’ ceramic plaque. Modern UVPC windows and doors have replaced the original wooden door and sash windows.
Landlords at the Red Lion include:
1869 Janetta Gazzard
1891 John Millwaters
1901 I. Millwater
1901 George and Esther Gazzard
1903 George Gazzard
1923 S.J. Leighton
1939 Albert James
