Shakespeare Inn / Shamrock, (272) 274 Lower High Street, Cheltenham

Numbered 272 High Street in 1878 and 274A in 1939. The Shakespeare, on the western side of Grove Street, was probably originally tied to the Carlton Brewery of Cheltenham before its acquisition by Charles Garton, brewers of Bristol. (If my memory has not failed me I am sure that a Garton’s Ales advertisement could still be seen at the entrance to the Shakespeare as late as 1979).

Charles Garton & Co of Lawrence Hill in Bristol were the owners of the Shakespeare Inn in 1891. When Garton’s were taken over by Anglo-Bavarian Brewery of Shepton Mallet in 1899 all their Cheltenham pubs were transferred to the new owners. It must have been a logical challenge bringing the beer up from Somerset to Gloucestershire, but the Anglo-Bavarian brewery will have almost certainly used the Somerset & Dorset and Midland Railway to take their beers north. The annual rateable value of the Shakespeare Inn remained at the same level of £59.10s.0d. from 1891 to 1903 and the pub was licensed as an ale house.

Charles Garton was then taken over by the Anglo-Bavarian Brewery of Shepton Mallet, Somerset.

The Shakespeare Inn had a long association with West Country and Whitbread breweries based in Cheltenham. The pub was refurbished and extended in 2007 and now trades as the Shamrock.

Inside the Shakespeare Inn (image courtesy Melanie Twyning)

Hi Geoff,

Just a little additional info, the Shamrock on the lower High Street, which was formerly the Shakespeare Inn, was actually of 18th-century origin and originally known as the Shakespear Tavern. It appeared on an 1806 map of Cheltenham and in 1801 was part of William Gouldar’s estate, having formerly belonged to his father Richard Gouldar.

There is a little more information relating to the pub on the Facebook group Cheltenham Lower High Street Project, including a press clipping of an auction sale notice (which although it doesn’t give the name of the newspaper or date, must be from just after the turn of the 19th-century. It reads: “GLOUCESTERSHIRE. To be sold by AUCTION or by PRIVATE CONTRACT, in the course of the ensuing month, the Estate of the late Richard Gouldar, Innholder of Cheltenham; comprising the SHAKESPEARE INN and TAVERN, a small HOUSE situate in the centre of Cheltenham, together with two Orchards.” (Original capitalisation).

J. Gouldar was a later landlord in 1856.

Cheers,

Alan Jones

Landlords at the Shakespeare Inn include:

1830,1844 John Taylor

1856 J. Gouldar

1859,1870 John Clayton

1878 John Norton

1878 Benjamin Land

1883 Mrs Evans

1885,1891 Thomas Davis

1902,1906 Arthur Wethers Cooke

1919,1927 Thomas Woodward

1929 Norman Parker

1939 Arthur Griffiths

1993- 2005 Stephen Cremlin

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