the history of yeovil's pubs
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great western Inn / hotel
46-7 Camborne Grove
A
very late 19th
century public
house, shown
pink on the map
at right based
on the 1901
Ordnance Survey
map, clearly
built to serve
travellers using
Pen Mill railway
station (better
thirty years
late than never
I suppose) and
the local
domestic market
of
Camborne
Grove,
Camborne
Place and
Camborne
Street.
It was, for its first year or so, known as the Camborne Inn.
The
first recorded
licensee was Nun
Watts who was
born in 1851 at
Holcombe, near
Midsomer Norton,
Somerset. He was
the son of
carter Simon
William Watts
and his wife,
Martha née
Clarke. In the
1860's the
family lived at
Kilmersdon,
Somerset, but by
1871 Nun, aged
19 and
unmarried, was
lodging in
Holcome,
Somerset and was
working as a
coalminer in the
nearby Shepton
Mallet
coalfields. In
1877 Nun married
Sarah Padfield
of Holcombe, in
the Register
Office at Bath,
Somerset. By the
time of the 1881
census Nun and
Sarah, aged 29
and 28
respectively,
were living at 4
North Coker
Cross in East
Coker, three
miles southwest
of Yeovil, where
Nun was employed
as a police
constable. The
situation hadn't
changed by 1891
except that they
had a 13-year
old live-in
general domestic
servant called
Martha.
As an ex-police officer Nun should have known better, since the Western Gazette reported on 7 August 1896 "Nun Watts was summoned for selling beer on the premises at a house having an off-license in Camborne Grove, Yeovil." It appears that Nun was running a shop in the house next door to what is now the Great Western Inn despite the entry of 1897 in Kelly's Directory naming the inn and Nun as its keeper. In any event the report continued "Frank Morrell, Excise officer, said he went to the defendant's shop on 8 July and asked his wife for a pint of beer., which she supplied to him in a pewter pot. He drank the beer out of a glass handed to him in the shop, where he stayed about a quarter of an hour. In cross-examination he said there were 20 or 30 sailors and Marines in the shop at the time. They were drinking 'shandy gaff'." The Bench inflicted a fine of £2 and costs.
In the 1901 census Nun was listed as a beer seller and grocer and he and Sarah were living at the Great Western Hotel with niece Eliza Carter and a servant. The advertisement above left is from the Western Gazette Almanac of 1899. Sarah died in March 1907 and by 1911 Nun Watts was in residence next door at 49 Camborne Grove, listed as a widowed Retired Policemen. He remarried in 1919 at the age of 67 and died in 1929.
Edgar Payne was born about 1865 at Barton in the Clay, Bedfordshire, the son of agricultural labourer George Payne and Sarah née Young, his wife. By 1881 Edgar was an agricultural labourer living with his parents and five younger siblings in Barton le Clay. In 1895 he married Martha and then I lost track of him in the records. He and Martha were next found in the 1911 census at which time he was 46, she was 47 and they had been married for 16 years but had no children. They were living at the Great Western Inn where Edgar was listed as the innkeeper.
At left is an
undated, but
probably early
20th century,
public house
'check' or trade
token issued at
the Great
Western Hotel.
It is made of
brass, is 26.2mm
in diameter and
has a milled
edge. The
reverse is plain
but on the
obverse it says
"G.W. HOTEL" and
its value - 3d.
At this time
three old pence
could buy you a
pint of
beer. Checks were
frequently used
in games, such
as skittles or
quoits where,
for instance,
players would
'chip in' a
check to the
'kitty' which
would be won by
the winning team
to redeem at the
bar. By issuing
checks a
landlord could
guarantee they
would be spent
in his
establishment
only.
The Great Western closed around 2015 and was converted to flats.
gallery
Courtesy of Tony
Rendell
An enamel sign that was once displayed in Pen Mill Station, advertising the Great Western Hotel which was literally just around the corne.
Courtesy of
Chris Rendell
The Great Western photographed in 1990.
From my
collection
Carol and Clive Warren, who had previously run the Conservative Club, took over the Great Western. Photograph from the Visitor, November 1990.
From my
collection
Carol and Clive's advertisement for the Great Western in the same edition of the Visitor.
This
photograph
features in my
book "Lost Yeovil"
The Great Western Hotel photographed in 2012.
The front bar looking towards the station. Photographed 2013.
This
photograph
features in my
book "Lost Yeovil"
Looking across to the pool table. Photographed 2013.
The bar area. Photographed 2013.
The former Great Western photographed in early 2019. It's looked like this for a couple of years.
The former Great Western Hotel is now converted into flats. Photographed May 2020.
licensees
1897 – Nun Watts
– Beer Retailer
& Shopkeeper
(Kelly’s 1897
Directory) as
Great Western
Inn
1898 – Nun Watts
(Whitby's 1898
Yeovil Almanack
Advertiser)
listed as
Camborne Inn
1898 – Nun Watts
(Collins 1898
Directory)
listed as
Camborne Inn
1901 – Nun Watts
– Beer Seller
and Grocer (1901
census) listed
as Great Western
Hotel.
1911 – Edgar
Payne (Whitby's
1911 Yeovil
Almanack
Advertiser)
1914 – Edgar
Payne – Beer
Retailer
(Kelly’s 1914
Directory) pub
not named
1913 – License
transfer from
Edgar Pane to
William Bull of
Taunton (Petty
Sessions)
1915 – William
Bull (Whitby's
1915 Yeovil
Almanack
Advertiser)
1916 – William
Bull (Whitby's
1916 Yeovil
Almanack
Advertiser)
1923 – Frederick
Witts – Beer
Retailer
(Kelly’s 1923
Directory) pub
not named
1923 – Frederick
Witts – Beer
Retailer
(Kelly’s 1923
Directory) pub
not named
1935 – Alfred
John Hallett
(1935 Yeovil
Directory - Beer
Retailers)
1938 – AJ
Hallett (1938
Yeovil
Directory)
listed as Great
Western Inn
1939 – Alfred
Hallett (Kelly’s
1939 Directory)
listed as Great
Western Hotel
1947 – Licensee
not named (1947
Yeovil
Directory)
listed as Great
Western Inn
1949 – Licensee
not named
(Kelly’s 1949
Directory)
listed as Great
Western Inn
1951 – WJ
Ricketts (1951
Yeovil
Directory)
listed as Great
Western Hotel
1954 – WJ
Ricketts (1954
Yeovil
Directory)
listed as Great
Western Hotel
1957 – Mrs ME
Ricketts (1957
Yeovil
Directory)
listed as Great
Western Hotel
1960 – T Whittle
(1960 Yeovil
Directory)
listed as Great
Western Hotel
1965 – Licensee
not named (1965
Yeovil
Directory)
listed as Great
Western Hotel
1968 – Licensee
not named
(Kelly’s 1968
Directory)
listed as Great
Western Hotel
1969 – Licensee
not named
(Kelly’s 1969
Directory)
listed as Great
Western Hotel
1970 – Licensee
not named
(Kelly’s 1970
Directory)
listed as Great
Western Hotel
1971 – Licensee
not named
(Kelly’s 1971
Directory)
listed as Great
Western Hotel
1972 – Licensee
not named
(Kelly’s 1972
Directory)
listed as Great
Western Hotel
1973 – Licensee
not named
(Kelly’s 1973
Directory)
listed as Great
Western Hotel
1974 – Licensee
not named (1974
Yeovil
Directory)
listed as Great
Western Hotel
1987 – Licensee
not named
(Denton’s 1987
Directory)
listed as Great
Western Hotel
1990 – Carol and
Clive Warren
(Advertisement)
