The History of the New Inn/Crown Inn/Hotel, Mosborough by John Rotherham April 2020

The Crown Inn, formerly the New Inn, Mosborough, traces its roots back to the Enclosure Movement of the Eighteenth Century. The site of the building, now demolished, fell within the manorial waste of the ancient Manor of Eckington in a piece of common land known as Mosborough Green. The Eckington Enclosure Act[1], subdivided these areas of common land and allocated portions of them to legally entitled landowners. Some twenty years after these allocations or allotments were made, a number at the junction of Queen Street and High Street on Mosborough Green were purchased by Robert Fields[2]. One of these allotments, No. 176, at the corner of Queen Street and High Street (subsequently known as Crown Corner) was to become the future site of the New Inn/Crown Inn.

An entry in the Eckington Manor Court Rolls dated 4th December 1823 records that Robert Fields and Frances, his wife, sold a portion of his allotment No, 176 (approximately 800 sq. yards) to Thomas Lee, victualler, of the George & Dragon Inn, Mosborough, for £80[3]. Thomas Lee then mortgaged the land “with dwelling house and other buildings lately erected by Thomas Lee” with Robert Fields for £200[4], suggesting that the buildings forming the New Inn were erected after 1823.

Thomas Lee (1778-1855) was baptised on 1st January 1779 at Staveley, the son of William Lee (1747-1803) of Staveley Netherthorpe[5], and his wife Grace (nee Swallow, 1845-1816). He married Rebecca (1781-1845), the youngest daughter of Joseph Biggin (1735-1788) of Little Norton, farmer, deceased, at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington, on 27th November 1799. Both Thomas and Rebecca signed the register by mark. They had eight children:

  • Thomas, jnr. (1800-1872), baptised at Eckington on 26th October 1800. He married Hannah Rose (1802-1892) at Eckington on 6th September 1824. Thomas was a colliery labourer[6] before taking up farming, first at West Street, Mosborough, and ultimately a large farm of 80 acres at Moor hole, Mosborough, employing 1 man and 1 boy. Thirteen children;

  • Mary (d. 1804);

  • Harriet (1807-1868), married James Fox (1799-1883) of Mosborough, butcher, and lived at Collin Green. Five children;

  • Mary (d. 1811);

  • William (1812-1817), died an infant;

  • Charles (b. 1814);

  • Sarah (1818-1885), married Thomas Edward Taylor (1812-1873), of Salford, brush manufacturer, and lived first at Mosborough and then Arundel Street and South Street, Park, Sheffield. Eight children.

  • Ann (b. c1818).

[1]Eckington Enclosure Act, 1795 (35 Geo. 3, c100).

[2] Robert Field(s) (1788-1864) was born in 1788, the son of Michael, sicklesmith, and Mary Fields of Eckington. He was apprenticed to Ezra Hutton of Ridgeway, sicklesmith, in 1793, and later in 1799 to Joseph Burrows of Bole Hill, sicklesmith, to learn the trade of sicklesmith. He married Frances Oates (1778-1849) of Eckington in 1801 at Sheffield Cathedral. The couple moved to Everton in Lancashire, where Robert followed a career as an excise officer, before returning to Mosborough Green, where he bought land and took up farming.

[3] Treweek, A., Eck ct Rolls, T.Lee.doc-version 1, Files, Mosborough History Group (Facebook).

[4] Treweek, A., Comment on a post of the Mosborough History Group (Facebook), 22 May 2015.

[5] Staveley Baptisms Register.

[6] Foster, G., Reminiscences of Mosborough in the Present Century, 1886.

 

Thomas and Rebecca settled at the New Inn for around the next twenty-five years[1], during which time Rebecca must have taken a leading role; the New Inn becoming known locally as ‘Becky Lee’s’. Local colliery owner, George Wells (1788-1844), is said to have paid his workmen there[2]. The building was sufficiently prestigious and commodious locally to be the venue for a meeting of the Court Baron of the Manor of Eckington on Saturday 1st December 1832[3]. William Evans, the prospective Parliamentary candidate for North Derbyshire gave an election address to electors there in September 1837[4], and it was the venue for local auction sales in 1840[5] and 1841[6]. The inquest into the death of William Cowley, aged 80, who was killed by a bull on his way down Intake hill to visit his sick daughter in Sheffield, was held at the New Inn on 6th March 1841[7]. The building would become the principal venue in the village for the holding of inquests and property auctions for the next one hundred years.

Sadly, Rebecca died in March 1845, after which Thomas must have retired, for he is recorded living at Moor Hole with his son, Thomas, jnr. in the Census return for 1851, when he is described as being “in receipt of Parish relief, former Publican”.

 

Thomas died at Moor Hole in April 1855, aged 76 years, and was buried at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington[8].

Thomas and Rebecca were followed at the New Inn by John Robinson (1813-1857) of Mosborough and his wife Elizabeth (1814-1847). John Robinson had been a pen knife manufacturer, but by November 1845 and the birth of his son, Frederick, he is described in the baptism register as a licenced victualler, suggesting the move came shortly beforehand. It was probably around this time that the New Inn was renamed as the Crown Inn.

 

John Robinson was baptised at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington on 14th March 1813, the son of John Robinson, of Eckington, publican, and his wife, Hannah. He married first Elizabeth Turner (1814-1847), daughter of William Turner of Eckington, woodman, and his wife Hannah, at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington, on 31st January 1836. Elizabeth died in 1847, aged 33, and was buried at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington, on 20th April 1847[9]. The couple had four children:

  • Louisa Ann (b. 1837-1924), married Samuel Taylor (1834-c.1910) of Ridgeway, woodturner, and lived at Darnall, Sheffield. 2 children;

  • Eleanor (1842-1867), married George Littlewood (b. 1841) of Manchester (formerly Renishaw), pattern maker, and lived at Mosborough, died 1867, aged 24, and buried at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington on 27th October 1867[10];

  • Frederick (1848-1909), a joiner, married Lucy Taylor (b. 1848) of Ridgeway, and lived at Darnall, six children;

  • Henry (b. 1849), apprenticed to his father as a pen knife cutler at the age of 11 in 1851[11], became a sergeant in the Queen’s Own Highland(?) Regiment (1871);

A year after Elizabeth died, John married Elizabeth (1816-1884), the youngest daughter of William “Billy” Herring (1773-1865) of Mosborough Green, tailor, and his wife Martha (nee Watkin, 1773-1842) at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington, on 6th July 1848[12]. John and Elizabeth had one child:

  • Mary Jane (b. 1849), married William Herring (1845-1884) of Manchester, tailor, lived first at the Crown Inn, where William became a farmer of 16 acres whilst continuing his tailoring business. Four children.

John Robinson appears to have pursued a dual occupation of pen knife cutler alongside that of the landlord of the Crown, suggesting that Elizabeth must have taken a key role in its management. Her task, however, must have been difficult at times. In 1852, for instance, William Bagshaw of Woodhouse was charged by his brother, Richard Bagshaw of Mosborough, with assault at the Inn, and similar charges were made at the same hearing of the Eckington magistrates by Henry Oakes against George Booth, coke burner, of Eckington. These instances prompted the magistrates to warn John that his licence would be at risk if he allowed this kind of behaviour to continue[13].

 

There are few reports of incidents at the Crown after this, although in 1868 William Bingham was charged with pickpocketing George Rhodes, colliery clerk and son of John Rhodes the owner of Woodthorpe and Plumley Collieries. However, the evidence was insufficient to secure a conviction[14].

John died in 1857, aged 44 years, and was buried at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington, on 10th April 1857. In his will and codicil, dated 1852[15], he left his estate in trust to be applied to the maintenance of his wife, Elizabeth, and children by his trustees Elizabeth, John Stevenson, joiner, and Thomas Wilson, glazier, of Eckington. The licence was transferred to Elizabeth[16], who continued as sole proprietress of the Crown Inn for the next twenty-eight years after John’s death. According to George Foster, “she was possessed of wonderful tact in the management of all kinds of company; clean and courteous. She built a good many cottages. She died in 1884, aged 68 years”[17].

 

An interesting notice appeared in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph in October 1874 relating to an area of 340 square yards at the rear of the Crown Inn, currently used as a garden in the occupation of Eliza Robinson and admirably suited for building purposes[18]. The land was sold for £112, but the name of the purchaser was not given[19]. It seems quite possible that it was Elizabeth herself, upon which she built the slaughterhouse, stable and piggeries later listed in her estate.

 

The extent of Elizabeth’s portfolio of properties was revealed at an auction sale of her estate at the White Hart Inn in March 1890[20]. This included a grocer’s shop and seven dwelling houses at Mosborough Moor (High Street); a butcher’s and grocer’s shop and five dwelling houses in Queen Street (Hill Side), and a slaughterhouse, stable and piggeries in Queen Street between the Crown Inn and the other Queen Street properties mentioned. The names of the tenants, given in the notice, can be cross-referenced against the 1891 Census, revealing them to have been:

104 High Street Herbert Buxton, stonemason, his wife, Mary Anne (nee Staton), and their children Arthur and Fred, coal miners, and Hannah, at school.
105 High Street William Hutton, sickle forger, and his sons, Charles Frederick, coal miner, and Gilbert, at school.
106 High Street A tenant or family named Havenhand, not there in 1891.
107 High Street Sarah Bracegirdle, widow, and her daughter, Hannah, and granddaughter, Nora.
108 High Street Mark Keeton, sickle warehouseman, and his wife, Margaret (nee Lowcock), and their children Charles Gilbert, colliery pony driver, and Clara and Arthur, at school.
109 High Street William Renshaw, sickle smith, and his wife, Julia Hannah (nee Marples), and their son Frederick Marples Renshaw, a colliery labourer.
110 High Street Reuben Bramall, coal miner, and his wife Martha.
12 Queen Street (Hill Side in the Census return) William Staton, sickle maker, and his wife, Mary J., and children Albert E., Horace and Harry, coal miners, and Sarah E., Herbert and Emma, at school.
13 Queen Street/Hill Side A tenant or family named Unwin, not there in 1891.
14 Queen Street/Hill Side James Beighton, a coal miner, and his wife, Elizabeth, and their children, Sam, coal miner, and Harriet E. (13), along with his father, John Beighton (76), widower, and niece, Fanny Kirkby, at school.
15 Queen Street/Hill Side John Godley, coal miner, and his wife, Kate, and their children, Fred, Alice and Annie, at school.
16 Queen Street/Hill Side Sam Havenhand, with his children, Arnold, butcher and grocer, Annie, grocer’s assistant, Nellie, dressmaker, and Alice and Edith at school, along with visitor, Jane H. Gunby, a laundress.

 

A report of an auction sale at the Crown Inn in June 1885 revealed that the piggeries and slaughterhouse had been sold to Mr. Fred Barber and that the Crown Inn and an adjoining cottage had been sold to Samuel Taylor of Darnall, for £1.020[21].

 

What happened to the tenancy of the Crown Inn after that appears unclear. There was a report of a hearing at Hemsworth Petty Sessions in August 1886[22], where Thomas Green, innkeeper, Mosborough, was charged with selling drink at prohibited hours. Jabez Peat, butcher, who was found on the premises at prohibited hours was also fined. It is believed that Thomas Green was the licensee of the Crown at this time, but little is known about him.

Thomas Green was followed at the Crown by William Kay (1839-1897), formerly landlord of the Duke William Inn, Mosborough. William was born on 30th June 1839, and baptised at St Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington on 28th July 1839[23], the son of George Kay (1813-1886) of Mosborough, farmer, and his wife Sarah (nee Massey, 1803-1861). William was a coal miner and one of the survivors of the accident at the Silkstone Main Colliery of Messrs Swallow of Mosborough Moor in 1859[24]. He married Emma Waller (1842-1899), eldest daughter of Edward Waller (1817-1895) of Mosborough, coke burner, and his wife Esther (nee French, 1820-1890) at St. Peter and St. Paul Parish Church on 4th December 1838[25].

 

The couple lived in Mosborough, where William continued in his employment as a coal miner. The 1881 Census records them living at the Duke William Inn, Mosborough[26], whilst by 1891 they had moved to the Crown Inn. By contrast, Kelly’s 1891 Directory of Derbyshire lists them still living at the Duke William, suggesting their move must have occurred around this time. The couple had seven children:

  • George Edward (1866-1924), coal miner/pumping engine tenter, lived at Cadman Street, Mosborough, unmarried;

  • Nellie (b. 1874);

  • Sarah (b. 1876-1920), married John Crofts (1870-1944) of Mosborough, coal miner; lived at Cadman Street, Mosborough, no children;

  • Bernard (1877-1896), died age 19;

  • William (1880-1924), a colliery labourer, married Sarah Staniforth (1877-1926) of Mosborough, lived at Elmton, Creswell, Derbyshire, one child;

  • Florence (1884-1933), married Samuel Wilcock (1880-1957) of Eckington, coal miner, lived at Elmton, Creswell, Derbyshire, 3 children;

  • Lillian (1885-1927), married Frederick Barnes (1885-1962) of Mosborough, a coal miner, lived in Mosborough, two children.

By 1895, the Crown Inn had a new landlord. William died two years later, aged 58, so it might be supposed that he was suffering illness or had decided to retire. The name of Henry Staniforth (1865-1941) is briefly associated with the Crown Inn in late 1895[27] when he twice appeared before Eckington magistrates for drunkenness, allowing Joseph Savage, stonemason, to be drunk on his premises and permitting the sale of intoxicating liquor during prohibited hours. Henry’s wife, Alice, gave evidence at the hearing[28].

Henry was baptised on 25th June 1865 at St. Peter and St. Paul parish church, Eckington[29], the son of George Staniforth (1830-1906) of Eckington, coal miner, and his wife Jane (nee Morton, 1928-1868). He followed his father into the coal mining industry and worked at Renishaw Park colliery, where he was prosecuted, along with Isaac Plant of the Alma Inn and others for a minor safety offence[30]. He married Alice (1868-1906), daughter of John Grant (1833-1905) of Mosborough, stonemason, and his wife Elizabeth (nee Cooper, 1837-1885) in Sheffield in October 1891. The couple settled at Market Street in Eckington, where George established a butchery business. Henry had moved the business to South Street, Mosborough by April 1896, when his youngest daughter was born. The couple had three children:

  • Evelyn Whiteley (b. and d. 1893);

  • Percy (1894-1918), apprentice bricklayer with his uncle, Albert Cooper Grant (1869-1957) of South Street, Mosborough. Enlisted as a Private with the 1st 7th Battalion of the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment and was missing presumed killed in action in France on 13th April 1918[31]. He is commemorated on the Tyn Cot memorial in Belgium;

  • Elizabeth Ellen (1896-1905).

Henry’s tenure appears to have been very short. It is thought that he died at Mosborough in 1941, aged 76. His wife, Alice, had died in 1906, aged 37.

 

A case at Chesterfield County Court in 1896 revealed that Willis Ball, of Mosborough, had placed a deposit with the Brampton Brewery Company in expectation of being granted the tenancy, and he was claiming the return of his deposit, implying that the Crown Inn had been acquired by the Brampton Brewery sometime before Henry Staniforth’s tenancy[32].

 

George Greaves was the next recorded landlord of the Crown Inn in 1998, when the phrase “Crown Hotel” was first coined[33]. George (1854-1919) was baptised at Killamarsh on 5th November 1854, the son of John Greaves (1825-1899) of Killamarsh, labourer, and his wife Sarah (nee Vickers, 1832-1902). He began his career as a furnaceman and married Harriet (1854-1911), youngest daughter of James French (1825-1883) of Eckington, coal miner, and his wife Alice (nee Hibberd, 1819-1894) at Sheffield in December 1873. The couple settled in Eckington, where George worked as a colliery labourer, probably at Hornthorpe Colliery, before moving to Mosborough before 1898 to take the Crown Inn.

 

He introduced new activities to the Crown including pigeon shooting, for which he often contributed prize money[34]. He may have been the first to employ a professional musician too, as Ernest Wright of Rotherham, pianist, is listed among the Hotel’s servants in the 1901 Census. George and Harriet had twelve children:

  • John (1874-1925), a coal miner, married (1) Selina Bagshaw (1874-1905) and lived in Eckington, 4 children; married (2) Mary Hopkinson (nee Hudson,1866-1926), widow of Herbert Hopkinson (b. 1865-1903) of Temple Normanton, coal miner, and daughter of Eliza Hudson, murdered at West Handley in 1873[35]. Landlord of the Navigation Hotel, Killamarsh, 1 child.

  • Harvey (1876-1953), a coal miner, married Eunice Emily Elliott (1878-1953) of Eckington, settled at Eckington, then moved to Bond’s Main, Temple Normanton, probably to work for Staveley Coal and Iron Co. at Bond’s Main Colliery, 11 children;

  • Edward (1878-1949), a coal miner, married Mary Jane Barker (1878-1937) of the Queen’s Hotel, Mosborough; moved to Hasland and then for a short time to Bond’s Main, before returning to Chesterfield, incapacitated. 8 children;

  • Luke (1880-1946), a coal miner, married Margery Ann Ramshaw (1879-1947) of Pontefract, lived at Pontefract, then Jump, Barnsley, Castleford, Yorkshire, and finally at Bond’s Main, Temple Normanton, before enlisting with the 1st Battalion of the Yorkshire and Lancashire Regiment in 1897 and then the Royal Horse Artillery and the Field Artillery in 1915, serving as a Bombardier for the duration of the First World War. Awarded the Victory Medal and the British War Medal in 1919, 7 children;

  • Wilfred (1882-1886), died an infant;

  • Walter (1884-1917), coal miner/blacksmith, married Sarah Emily Richardson (1883-1938) of Barlow, lived at Hasland, Chesterfield before enlisting with 6th Battalion, the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, where he became a Lance Corporal. Killed in action in France, 27th April 1917, 1 child;

  • Annie (b. 1887), living with her father at Bond’s Main, Temple Normanton in 1911, aged 23. Nothing more known;

  • Charles (1889-1978), a coal miner, married Bertha White (1886-1923) of New Tupton, lived at New Tupton;

  • Nellie (b. 1890);

  • Ernest (1893-1965), a coal miner at Bond’s Main Colliery, Temple Normanton, married Clara Galley (1895-1983) of Mosborough, lived at Hasland;

  • Rhoda (1894-1945), married Robert Bedford (1892-1970) of Calow, Chesterfield, coal miner, lived at Temple Normanton, 5 children.

George appeared before the Eckington magistrates in January 1901 for permitting drunkenness on his premises, but the case was dismissed[36]. Harriet died in January 1911 and the 1911 Census records George living at Bond’s Main with three of his younger children and described as a colliery labourer. He died in 1919 and was buried at Whitwell on 20th December 1919, aged 64 years[37].

 

There are few public records regarding the Crown Hotel in the years that followed. One suggestion gives William Binney (b. 1847) and his wife Sarah Ann (b. 1848), formerly of the “Brown Cow”, holding the licence between 1914 and 1920. Comments on the Mosborough History Group’s Facebook page report that Sam and Annie Purdy were hosts at the Crown from 1922, and Percy and May Ellis until it was demolished for road re-alignment purposes.

 

[1] Pigot’s National and Commercial Directory 1828, and Glover, S., The Directory of the County of Derby, 1829. The entries describe Thomas as “Lee, Thomas, vict. New Inn”, also Pigot’s National and Commercial Directory (1842).

[2] Foster, G., Reminiscences of Mosborough during the Present Century (1886).

[3] Treweek, A., Eckington (Derbyshire) – Inns and Public Houses: 1800-1920s. Wishful Thinking website.  http://places.wishful-thinking.org.uk/DBY/Eckington/InnsandPubs.html (Accessed 20th April 2020).

[4] Derbyshire Courier, 23rd September 1837.

[5] Derbyshire Courier, 28th November 1840.

[6] Sheffield Independent, 6th February 1841.

[7] Sheffield Independent, 6th March 1841.

[8] Eckington Parish Register.

[9] Eckington Parish Register.

[10] Eckington Parish Register.

[11] 1851 Census, England & Wales.

[12] Eckington Parish Register.

[13] Derbyshire Courier, 24 January 1852.

[14] Derbyshire Courier, 11th April 1868.

[15] PROB11/2252/9/401-450 (1857), National Archives.

[16] Sheffield Independent, 16th May 1857.

[17] Foster, G., Reminiscences of Mosborough during the Present Century (1886).

[18] Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 3rd October 1874.

[19] Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald, 24th October 1874.

[20] Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 1 March 1890

[21] Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 2nd June 1885. Samuel Taylor (formerly of Ridgeway), a joiner, had married Elizabeth’s stepdaughter, Louisa Ann Robinson before 1861.

[22] Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald, 21 August 1886.

[23] Eckington Parish Register.

[24] Sheffield Independent, 10th September 1859.

[25] Eckington Parish Register.

[26] And also, Kelly’s Directory of Derbyshire, 1881.

[27] Bulmer’s History, Topography and Directory of Derbyshire (1895)

[28] Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald, 16th October 1895; Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 10th December 1895.

[29] Eckington Parish Register.

[30] Sheffield Independent, 4 September 1883.

[31] UK, WWI Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, The Western Front Association, 2018.

[32] Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald, 22 February 1896.

[33] Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald, 19 March 1998.

[34] Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 25 September 1901.

[35] Lyon, M., Shaw, B., This Remote Township, A Story of Changing Times in the Derbyshire Hamlets of Nether, Middle and West Handley, Chap. 8, p. 114.

[36] Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 8th January 1901.

[37] Whitwell Parish Register.