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Staffordshire Pubs Inns Taverns Alehouses and Taverns |
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Name |
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| Clifton-Campville ~ Green-Man Inn |
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Trade Directories for the 19th century do not record another pub or beer seller in the village of Clifton Campville so it would seem that the Green Man enjoyed a monopoly of beer and liquor sales. Combined with neighbouring Haunton, the population in 1861 was 513 and this represented a decent customer base. White's directory of 1834 details Clifton Campville "as a large village and manor in the vale of the Mease, and near the junction of the four counties of Stafford, Derby, Leicester and Warwick, five mile N.N.E. of Tamworth." In that year the parish had three townships, [Clifton, Haunton and Harlaston] in Staffordshire, and one in Derbyshire, called Chilcote. In the early 19th century all of the land in Clifton and Haunton was owned by Henry John Pye of Clifton Hall so I assume this also included the Green Man. Charles Pye had bought the manor from the Coventry family in 1700. Following his death in 1721, monuments by John Michael Rysbrack were erected in St.Andrew's church, a superlative building dating from the 14th century. |
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Externally, the 21st century Green Man Inn looks similar to the pub seen in the pre-war photograph above. A few things have inevitably changed. The garden to the right has gone - this may have served the needs of the pub at one time. Other attractive garden elements such as the old gate and the flower beds have also vanished. In 2007 a large tarmac car park fills the space between the pub and the main street passing through Clifton Campville. Although much of the original interior has been lost or covered with carpet, at least some of the room divisions are still in place. The right side of the pub has been opened out to form a large restaurant in what may have been a small parlour and the publican's living room. However, by today's standards the Green Man Inn is still a very welcoming hostelry. Furnished with a few of the older regulars, the bar makes a pleasant place to enjoy a few pints of beer. |
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As can be seen in this photograph, former owners Ansell's liked to advertise the fact that the Green Man Inn was a 16th century coaching inn. Two things spring immediately to mind. Firstly, the 16th century was not the coaching era - this came much later. Secondly, although a pub may have existed on this site in the 16th century, this building looks a much later construction. Nevertheless, it is a building of some antiquity and should be celebrated. The sign of the Green Man is also historic. An ancient pagan symbol, it was used in the architecture of medieval churches as an iconographic image of resurrection. The sign of the Green Man Inn at Clifton Campville portrays the Jack in the Green, a figure associated with the new growth of spring and May Day celebrations. In Hastings, for instance, the Jack pageant is still re-enacted each spring. The Jack in the Green is played by a man in a towering eight-foot-tall costume of leaves, topped by a masked face and a crown made out of flowers. |
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The Green Man then travels through the town accompanied by men whose hair, skin, and clothes are all green, and a young girl bearing flowers, dressed and painted entirely in black. Morris and clog dancers entertain the crowds, while the Jack, a trickster figure, romps and chases pretty girls, playing the fool. At length he reaches a mound in the woods below the local castle. The Morris dancers wield their wooden swords, striking the leaf man dead. A poem is recited over the creature solemnly, then merriment breaks out as each member of the crowd takes a leaf from the Jack for luck. Did some form of ceremony or ritual take place here in Clifton Campville, for the pub has seemingly always traded under this name. |
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Fronting the main street of Clifton Campville, the Green Man Inn certainly benefited from being located on a turnpike road, evidence of which can be found along the hedgerows with the placing of milestones. A fine example can be found a hundred yards or so from the White Lion Inn at nearby Harlaston. The Green Man Inn would have served travellers on the route from King's Bromley and Alrewas, following the Mease valley and on into Warwickshire. The Green Man Inn was kept by the Riley family for most of the 19th century. Thomas and Mary Riley were running the place in the 1840's and 1850's. Born in Chilcote around 1797, Thomas also farmed some sixty-seven acres of land. He employed a number of people to maintain the farm business. Although the Green Man Inn sold ales brewed on the premises, the task of producing the beers was the responsibility of John Miles who also lived in the village. Thomas Riley was succeeded by John Baxter Riley who had moved away from the area to live and work in Braunstone. |
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Born in Twycross around 1822, John Baxter Riley was probably
a tenant to the Pye family. In addition to being a publican, he was also a farmer. He lived at the Green Man Inn with his wife
Sarah who hailed from Marchington. The couple had four children William,
Sarah, John and Mary who all lived on the premises. In the early 1860's
John and Sarah Riley employed Emma Summers as a dairy maid and John
Heafield as a waggoner, suggesting that the Riley's sold to almost as
much milk as they did beer. Many of the farm's outbuildings can still be
found alongside the Green Man Inn. Residents of the village during the
1860's
[and likely customers at the Green Man Inn] were the wheelwright
Benjamin Ashby, blacksmith William Wilson, bootmaker George Ward and the
butcher Richard Johnson. Many of the other villager worked in farming.
With advancing years John Riley scaled down his farming operation and
concentrated on the Green Man Inn. Following the death of his wife, he
continued to run the pub with his daughter Sarah. However, following his
death in 1898, the licence of the Green Man passed to his son William.
He only kept the licence for a short spell. He had already left the
village and found work at
Burton-on-Trent as a
brewer's clerk. After returning to Clifton Campville for a brief period
he returned to his home at Winshill where he continued to work as a
brewer's clerk whilst living with his sisters Sarah and Mary. He did
have four children who were all born in Winshill but his wife died in
the late Victorian age. William Pearson was the incumbent in 1901. Born
in the Staffordshire village of Elford in 1860, he kept the Green Man
Inn with his wife Julia. The couple employed Alice Heafield as a general servant
and Thomas Pryce as an ostler
and groom, the latter suggests that the Green Man was still a key
pit-stop on the former turnpike route. In the 20th
century the Green Man formed part of the
Ind Coope and Allsop
estate of pubs before becoming an
Ansell's house. The
Allsopp family kept the pub for many years in the mid-late part of the
century. The pub's interior was structurally altered in the 1970's. The
Tamworth and District Classic Motorcycle Club held their inaugural
meeting at the Green Man in 1983 and has held a regular event at the pub
since that year. |
| Edingale ~ Black Horse Inn |
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| Elford ~ Crown Inn |
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| Harlaston ~ White Lion Inn |
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The White Lion in Harlaston stands on the triangle formed by the road junction with the road to Edingale. Extended on a couple of occasions and incorporating a small beer garden, the attractive pub really has maximised its triangular plot to the full. Conjecture on my part perhaps, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the road was gated here and that the building doubled as a toll office for those travelling along the turnpike following the Mease valley. The publican towards the end of the coaching period was Thomas Bellfield, a man who probably found the thought of the Midland Railway bad for business; and who could blame him - the Elford and Haselour railway station was later erected only a mile away. Born around 1776, Thomas Bellfield kept the White Lion Inn with his wife Mary and son Thomas. The family employed Henry Thorp and Thomas Towers as servants. Manned by William Wood, the toll gate was still operational in the early 1850's when the White Lion Inn was kept by the master bricklayer Samson Sturges. |
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Born in
Wolverhampton in 1812,
Samson and his
Derby-born wife Mary had
six children and employed Elizabeth Smith as a servant. The family had
moved to the area some years before they took over the pub. They were
recorded in the village in 1841 when there was another public house run
by Thomas and Harriett Smith. On this subject, Parson and Bradshaw's
directory of 1818 lists W. Benefield as the publican of the Red Lion at
Harlaston. Was this a different public house or the original name of the
White Lion? The sign of
the White Lion is widespread throughout Great Britain but is very
common around East Anglia because of its heraldic reference to both
Edward IV and the Earls of March or the Duke of Norfolk. The lion has
been a signboard favourite and is generally
illustrated in an upright position. The most common variant is that of
the Red Lion. This evolved because of John of Gaunt who, during the
fourteenth century, was the most powerful man in the England. At one
time many publicans were former employees of an ancient house, either of
the church, the state or nobility and often demonstrated their continued
association or loyalty by including their heraldic shield along with a
colour prefix such as The White Lion.
By 1860 John Sudbury was the licensee of the White Lion Inn. Born to the
south of
Tamworth
in the Warwickshire village of Middleton around 1811, John Sudbury had
moved to the area when working in the stables of the rectory at
neighbouring
Clifton Campville. Later in the
1840's he married and moved to the Derbyshire village of
Rosliston where he worked
as a horse breaker. Following the death of his wife Elizabeth, he
re-married to Hannah
Dunn, daughter of the publican of the
Crown Inn at Elford. This was
his route into the licensed trade. The Sudbury family kept the White
Lion Inn for the rest of the 19th century. When John Sudbury's sons from
his first marriage, Charles and Alfred, found employment in other parts
of the country, John and Hannah kept the White Lion Inn with the help of
a servant. John died in 1885 and Hannah continued until she passed away
in 1888. John's son Alfred Sudbury, who had worked as a draper's
assistant in
West Bromwich, returned
to Harlaston to run the White Lion Inn. The census of 1891 records him
running the pub with his cousin Hannah Smith, a former teacher who,
although born in Norton Canes, had previously worked in Coventry.
Interestingly, the neighbouring property was still listed as the old
toll house. This makes me think that the tall slim section of the pub
was the toll house and that it was later incorporated into the adjacent
White Lion Inn. In 1891 the old toll house was occupied by the
wheelwright John Nevill. Alfred Sudbury and Hannah Smith employed
Edingale-born Harriet Gadsby as
a domestic servant to help with general duties around the White Lion
Inn. Alfred Sudbury married Lucy Hinkley in 1894. The couple had two
sons, John and Alfred, in the late Victorian era but Lucy died before
1901 and when Alfred died in 1902 the licence of the White Lion Inn
passed to brother-in-law Alfred Hinkley. Like his father John Hinkley,
he had worked as a joiner in
Derby. Alfred Latham was running
the White Lion Inn by the end of the Edwardian period and remained for
many, many years. I assume the Alfred Latham who took over in the 1950's
was his son. If so, the family kept the pub for seventy years, a
remarkable feat. The Latham's were initially tenants for
Mitchell's and Butler's before the
White Lion Inn formed part of the Bass empire. The Maiden family
acquired the pub in 1984 but sold the freehold to William Yates in 1987. |
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