 Fleet Street from Spon Street c1910
In 1756 ten soldiers were billeted here.
In January 1765 it was "TO BE LETT" and described as "being a very antient and good-accustomed Inn.".
The 3rd July 1780 issue of Coventry Standard advertises the pub - "on the South Side of Fleet Street" - is up for auction, along with many adjoining properties, due to the bankruptcy of Joseph Hands, to whose estate it belonged. After the final auction notice in November 1780 no more was heard about this pub.
In trying to locate the Eagle and Child, the auction describes the pub as having "Houses in the Yard behind" it and "a small Tenement adjoining" as adjoining a large Dye-House "situate on the River Sherbourne" - so I have tentatively placed a marker in its approximate location.
This is a reference to the arms of the Earls of Derby, the Stanleys. The story goes that Sir Thomas Latham in the fourteenth century had an illegitimate son. He had the child placed under a tree in which an eagle had built its nest. He then took his wife for a walk around the estate and they 'discovered' the infant. Sir Thomas persuaded his wife that they should adopt it. In spite of this successful ruse he left most of his riches to his daughter, Isobel, who married Sir John Stanley. In this way the Stanleys inherited both the estates and the heraldic eagle and child. |
