Geoff
On the cheltonia.wordpress.com website, in its list of “vanished pubs” it includes the Swan Inn, which it reports was “built in 1725 on the corner of Winchcomb [sic – it is spelt without an e at the end up to Mountpleasant!] Street and the High Street, and important enough that part of Winchcomb Street was once named Swan Lane.” This was a bit like North Street formerly being called Greyhound Lane for the Greyhound Inn. The listing says further of the Swan Inn, that “It seems to have closed in the 1790s.”
An article in the Cheltenham Local History Society journal no. 15 from 1999 entitled “A 1786 Map of Cheltenham” by James Hodsdon supports its existence, listing it as one of the properties held by Corpus Christi College, Oxford at that time (which at the time also owned the Old Swan further along the High Street, so it cannot be confusion with that one which is also listed separately.
So this Swan Inn would have been on the corner with the High Street and the stretch of Winchcombe Street from the High Street (to presumably Back Lane / Albion Street) would have been Swan Lane. Remember though, like Pittville Street, Winchcomb Street underwent widening in the 1950s or 60s, so the Swan would have been slightly further out than the current corner – maybe only a yard or two – so the travel agents which is on the corner now, would have been probably inside the Swan Inn.
Regards
Alan Jones