The first reference to a licensed premises on the site is in 1836. However, it is not recorded in the 1891 or 1903 Gloucestershire licensing books as the Ryeworth Inn. It may have been an un-named beer house.
Cheltenham Chronicle 25 October 1881 – “On the application of Mr. R. Lewis, the license of the Ryeworth Inn, Charlton Kings, was temporarily transferred from Thomas Lane to Samuel Hawkes”
Gloucester Journal 26 February 1876 – it mentions the sale of a “COPYHOLD BEERHOUSE, formerly called the “RED LION Inn,” but now known as “THE RYEWORTH INN”
Gloucester Journal 01 April 1876 – talks about the results of the auction “the Ryeworth Inn to Mr. Agg-Gardner’s agent, at 600l.”
Gloucestershire Echo, Thursday, August 14th, 1924 – Charlton Publican and Customers Fined: Before the Cheltenham Bench on Thursday, Major Richards in the chair, Richard A. Fowler, licensee of the Red Lion Inn, Ryeworth Road, Charlton Kings, answered to a summons charging him with supplying beer otherwise than during permitted hours. At the same time Christopher Townsend, of Shurdington, and James Hawkes, of Charlton, were summoned for consuming beer under such circumstances, and also pleaded not guilty, – Mr Harold Langley-Smith of Gloucester, prosecuted. and Mr Percy Haddock defended.
Mr Langley-Smith said at 11.10pm on the night in question P.S. Hughes and P.C. Simmonds, hearing talking in the Red Lion, tried the door, which was locked. Looking through the window into a room called the cellar, they saw a number of people there. The “cellar” was a place set out for customers with seats and tables. Knocking at the door it was opened by defendant, who, when asked whom he had there, at once said: “I am paying for their beer, they are my friends.” There were eight persons in the “cellar.” viz., Mrs Fowler (defendant’s wife) and her sister, John Theyer and his wife, the defendants Townsend and Hawkes (sic), Mrs Jessie Buckingham, and Mrs Ethel Jones. On the table were three half-pint cups three-quarters full of beer, one with a small quantity of beer in it, and two empty glasses that had evidently been used for beer. The sergeant told them they had no right to be consuming liquor, and Theyer said: “I have only just come in.” Townsend said: “I paid for mine before 10 o’clock, so that (commented Mr Langley-Smith) a half a pint had apparently lasted him an hour and a quarter. Hawkes said: “Mr Ballinger paid for mine at a quarter to ten.” The sergeant told them he did not believe so little beer would last them all that time, and he took their names.
As the police were going away defendant Fowler said: “I know I am in the wrong and that you have cautioned me; I am ruined; I must put up with it. They told me it was all right if it were not paid for after closing hours.” The beer was so freshly drawn there was actually froth on it.
P.S. Hughes corroborated, and, cross-examined by Mr Haddock, said the landlord did not tell him that the people were there to talk about an excursion to Wembley. Mrs Fowler, however, did follow him out and say something about it, but that was after the other statements. P.C. Simmonds corroborated.
Mr Haddock said the defence was that private friends might be entertained by a landlord after closing hours. The people had been invited to the house to discuss an excursion to Wembley. The landlord was a man of 16 years experience as a licensee had never been prosecuted. The whole case for the prosecution was mere inference.
Defendant Fowler said his friends were in the house in consequence of invitations to come given by Mrs Fowler a week before. At 10pm all the ordinary customers left, and he locked the front door. He gave defendant Townsend, who lived at Shurdington, some bread and biscuits, and Hawkes took the remainder of the beer he had been drinking with him. He sold nothing after ten.
Cross examined: They decided after one and a quarter hours’ conversation to go to Wembley some time in September, when he had had his teeth put in. He could not do so very well before.
Mrs Fowler and the two defendants Townsend and Hawkes gave evidence in corroboration. Hawkes denied that there was froth on the beer, which he did not touch for three-quarters of an hour. Mr Langley-Smith: “Can you resist beer like that?” – Yes. Mrs Jones was also called and confirmed the Wembley conference.
The Bench thought the case proved, and fined the landlord £2 and the other two defendants £1 each.
The pub is now permanently closed.
Landlords at the Ryeworth Inn include:
1915,1939 Richard Alfred Fowler
2001 Steve Lee
2001-2008 Andrew Heseltine
