The Definitive Guide to the History of
Pubs and Beerhouses in Coventry

Drinking in an Old English Town

Hare and Hounds, 136 Far Gosford Street

A Hare and Hounds is first mentioned in Gosford Street in the eighteenth century. However, by 1822 the Hare and Hounds in Gosford Street has gone and there is now one at 136 Far Gosford Street. Far Gosford Street was the mediaeval route eastwards out of the city. The building of Gosford gate and the city walls physically separated the two parts of the street into Gosford and Far Gosford, but even before this the distinction had been made, first by the 'goose ford' across the river and stream, and then by the bridges built across in the thirteenth century. Far Gosford was one of Coventry's early suburbs, and did not become part of the City administratively until 1748. Did the pub in fact move, or as I suspect, was it just that the names Gosford Street and Far Gosford Street were not used particularly accurately at that time? The Hare and Hounds at Far Gosford Street was quite a large premises. For a number of years up to 1903 it was leased by Phillips and Marriotts from its owners who were the Bablake Charity trustees, for £66 per annum. In 1906 the pub moved, so that the old pub in Far Gosford Street is now two shops. The Hare and Hounds moved up Bramble Street to the junction with Gulson Road. I have been unable to establish why it moved, but my guess is as follows. In 1902 Brick Kiln Lane (now Gulson Road) was extended to Gosford Green and by 1905 Bramble Street had been lain out, soon followed by Vecqueray Street. Since there were many pubs in the Gosford Street / Far Gosford Street area at this time the magistrates would be looking to reduce the number on the grounds of redundancy. So the licence of the Hare and Hounds would have been transferred to the new estate, albeit only at the opposite end of the same road. This name is an obvious reference to hunting.

LICENSEES: 1822 - 1823 J. Johnson 1835 Richard Hopkins 1850 - 1851 Richard Cowley 1868 - 1872 James Pegg 1872 Thomas Smith 1874 J. B. Hickley 1876 William Frankton 1879 John Warden 1881 - 1891 Thomas Smith 1893 William Jones 1894 William Turner 1896 - 1900 James Richard Mann 1901 - 1909 Joseph Raven 1911 - 1912 Mrs C. Tulley 1912 - 1913 G. Haskins 1919 - 1929 George Bidnell 1931 - 1932 R. J. Porter 1933 - 1938 Frank Allen 1939 - 1940 F. Rollason

OWNERS: 1903 General Charities Trustees, Bablake, Coventry

Street plan of 1851