It's thirty years since I was last making this commute and three since I started logging the dead pubs that now line its route. Our most recent bygone boozer passed on this journey was the New Inn in Repton which was located just off the bottom of this Ordnance Survey map extract. Move a little bit further into the village, about a couple of hundred yards in real life, and you will see the Shakespeare Inn marked.
The Shakespeare was operating from at least 1831 at which time John Brown would've been mine host...
...and when the Post Office directory was published in 1849 John Brown was still there.
But which John Brown? The John Brown who was listed as the landlord in 1831 – John Brown jnr – died the same year that the Post Office directory was published and the pub was taken on by his son, also John. (The elder of the two John's father was also called John, which would account for the use of jun in Pigot's 1831 edition.)
The youngest of the three Johns was still there in 1861, combining the innkeeping with some clog/patten making as well as a bit of shopkeeping.
No, I haven't misspelt pattern. And yes, I did have to look it up. It's a shoe with a raised sole, or one which has been built on an iron ring, to raise the wearer above the mud, horse droppings and general muck found on nineteenth century street surfaces. In other words, it's a clog!
John very junior died in 1869, by which time he'd been promoted to John Brown snr. as noted in Whites 1857 edition...
...and the running of the Shakespeare was taken on by his son, John. No, I'm kidding. He did have a son John, but this John jnr stuck to brush making...
...whilst it was his younger brother, Thomas, who took over the running of the Shakespeare...
...whilst carrying on his father's trade of clog/patten manufacture. Thomas remained there until his death in 1901 when his son, Thomas jnr took over.
Don't worry, we're not going to go down another path of loads of juniors and seniors, for the Brown family's connection with the pub seems to end here. Thomas jnr died in 1915 and I haven't found any family connection with the Shakespeare after that.
I had a very brief connection with the Shakespeare in that, as I mentioned above, I went in it once for a pint or three. Back in the early 1980s I'd meet up with a group of friends in a pub in the Derby/South Derbyshire area, usually on a Wednesday evening, to put the world to rights. We referred to this gathering as 'Beer and Politics' as we mainly talked about, err, beer and politics. At least we did in the beginning. As the years crept by it seems that more of our time was spent talking about pension plans. Anyway, one Beer and Politics meet was held in the Shakespeare, and it was the only venue where we had Banks's and Politics. It made a change from the usual pints of Bass, Pedigree or DBA which we consumed most weeks.
The pub continued to exist for around another decade but the temptation of ever-increasing value of building land probably became too much and the Shakespeare was demolished in the mid 1990s.
On its site sprouted a number of houses...
...in a development called...
For a quart of ale is dish for a king. I'm pretty certain this line comes from A Winter's Tale. If the Bard were to visit Repton today he'd have to pass the non-existent eponymous pub and settle for the Bull's Head if he wished to dine royally.
Thanks to Paul Worthington for the use of his image.
The Ordnance Survey map extract is copyright and has been reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland under the terms of this CC BY licence.
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I have been past this spot several times and hadn't realised that there was once a pub here before. It's a shame they didn't keep the pub buildings because the replacements are distinctly sub par.