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6 Bethesda Street

For most of its history this building was the Little Crown Inn public house in Commercial Street and it is recorded that in 1843 the licensee, Daniel Bolton, was charged with keeping his beer house open at 11.30 pm on a Saturday night, in contravention of the licensing hours. He made similar mistakes in 1859, when he was fined two shillings and sixpence, and again in 1865. In 1867 he was summoned for opening the bar “during the hours of Divine Service”.
By about 1872 the landlord had changed to Clement Press. Two years later the newspapers reported an affray in the pub, in which Mrs Press was assaulted by a customer, whom her husband had refused to serve because he was intoxicated.

Clement Press seems to have been quite a robust character who came to attention of the law on more than one occasion. In 1869 he made an application to extend the Little Crown into the adjoining house at 16 Commercial Street. Then in 1891 he was fined £1 for serving alcohol on a Sunday morning and when his license came up for renewal later that year the police made an objection.

By 1892 the licensee had changed to Stephen Miles, whose son was born at the pub in February, but sadly his wife Mary Ann died here in December the same year. He moved on in 1893 but fell into disagreement with the owner of the building about the terms of his early surrender of the lease.

There followed a quick succession of landlords, until the arrival in about 1897 of Arthur William Ryder and his wife May. “Bill” Ryder was born in Quedgeley, near Gloucester, and as a young man was keen on cricket and cycling. He was an enthusiastic pigeon fancier, was well known on the bowling green, and was Chairman of the Cheltenham & District League of the Air Gun association. During his tenancy at the Little Crown Bill formed an air gun club and installed a shooting range. He moved on to become landlord of the Suffolk Arms in 1907 and died in Cheltenham, in 1940, at the age of 75.

The next licensee was Alfred Thomas Matthews who lived here with his wife Amelia and a son and daughter. They were here until at least 1928, when it was reported that his daughter Florence was married in St James’ Church (now the Zizzi Italian restaurant). Florence married Thomas Burrows, whose parents owned Burrows Newsagents in Tivoli. ​

Amelia Matthews with her children
Alfred Matthews with soldiers at the back of the Inn during WW2

By the mid 1930s darts seems to have taken over from air gun competitions and the pub was very active in the local league. Later that decade the licensee was Alfred William Small and the pub had both a darts and a cricket team. ​

1939

In 1939 there was a dramatic rescue of horses from a fire at a nearby wood yard by customers from the pub. Click on the image on the left to read about this incident.

In 1946 Mr Small was reported to have won a very considerable sum on the football pools, amounting to £518 and 18 shillings. He claimed to have a system for winning. Unfortunately his lucky streak deserted him when, in 1948, he was gaoled for 18 months for fraudulent handling of the pub’s Social Club dividend fund! He was replaced by George James Price. ​

​By the early 1960s the landlords here were Sid Johnson and his wife Chris. They were followed by Ernie Whistler and later his daughter Kay Garrity.

See also our Local Memories page for this property.

MacDonald Vets

For more information click here.

Researcher: Stuart Manton (December 2021)
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