The Victoria County History says that it had opened at a cottage on the main road east of Churchend by 1746. Tidenham rate books for 1773 describe it as being at Stroat.
The Sugar Loaf was sold in December 1819 for £320. The inn was on the opposite side of the road to the ‘roundhouse’ and was closed by the widow of the solicitor T.H. Morgan, who died on January 11th, 1889. Mrs Christina Morgan was an active teetotaller and built a Memorial Hall at Woodcroft. Her daughter Emily built a Temperance Hall at Strout. There is no mention of the Sugar Loaf in the 1891 licensing records.
Gloucester Journal, 11th April 1863: Arson at Tidenham:
James Whittey, alias Pitcher, and Thomas FaIvey, were charged with setting fire to a hayrick, the property of Richard Keene, at Tidenham, on the 26th of February. Flavey [sic] pleaded guilty.
Mr. Somerset prosecuted the prisoners were undefended.
Thomas Evans deposed: I am a mason, living at Tidenham; about ten o’clock on the night of the 26th of February I was at the Sugar Loaf Inn, and saw a light strike up from a mound of hay which was in a field near the Sugar Loaf. I went towards the fire into the turnpike road; when I saw it it must have been on the top of the mound; it appeared to have been just lighted; when I was within about a hundred yards the fire I saw that it was a hayrick on fire; when I was within about thirty yards of the rick I saw two men; the prisoners were the men; they came over the hedge. I ran back to the Sugar Loaf and cried “fire!” and a man named Herd came up and took hold of both the prisoners; they said “Dont’ [sic] push us, we will go anywhere with you;” they were taken to the Inn.
The Judge: Pritchard, do you wish to put any questions to the witness?—Prisoner: I am not guilty.
P. C. G. Cooke: On the night of the 26th of February, I apprehended the two prisoners at the Sugar Loaf Inn. They were together. They did not then say anything; but at the stationhouse someone said the prisoners deserved to be hung. Whittey said, “Hang a poor fellow for a bit of hay! The rick was as black a coal before we touched it.” He did not say any more.
The Judge: Prisoner, do you wish to put any questions to the witness.
Prisoner: I told the policeman I was guilty.
A statement of the prisoner, made before the magistrates, was here put in and read. In it he stated that was a shoemaker, and went into Tidenham in a state of distress, and being unable get any employment, was led away by the other prisoner. When asked if he had anything to say to the jury in his defence, he said he had been a drummer and bugler in the army and last March twelvemonth was invalided home from the Mediterranean where his regiment was stationed. He added that he had been led away by the prisoner Falvey.
The prisoner was found guilty.
The learned judge in passing sentence said the offence of arson was one of very frequent occurrence and great severity had been exercised to put it down, but contrary to the expectation, and very much to the disappointment of the authorities it had failed to do so. However, it was an offence which he was determined to visit with a very severe punishment. He then sentenced the prisoners to six years’ penal servitude.
The above information and research kindly submitted by Dr. Martyn Beaufort
Landlords at the Sugar Loaf include:
1773-1774 Richard Tyler
1775-1786 James Gunter
1789-1791 Edmund Lewis
1792-1799 Widow Lewis
1855-1863 Charles Young
1867 A. Allwood
1868 – Turner
1871 John Collier
1887-1888 Walter Lewis
1888-1892 James Clutterbuck