Malt Shovel, 93 Spon End
This pub dates back to at least c1800. According to John Ashby's book "The Character of Coventry" the earliest mention of the pub in official records is from 1808. The old oak beams used in its construction are evidence of its antiquity, at times the building has been claimed to be at least 300 years old and one of the oldest inns in Coventry. As well as brewing its own beer, the Malt Shovel had stables for 50 horses at the back of the pub.
Soldiers were often billeted there from the cavalry barracks in the centre of town. The landlord was paid a fixed sum for each soldier billeted which was very miserly and deeply resented by all the pubs in the city.
In 1852 Spon End was flooded from the Malt Shovel down nearly to St Thomas Church in the Butts.
In 1861 the Malt Shovel was advertised for sale. It was described as 'All that the old-established and well-accustomed Freehold Inn, known by the sign of the Malt Shovel, in the occupation of Mr Thomas Sargeant. Also the dwelling house adjoining, being No. 94.... and a substantially-built Malthouse.... adjoining the house'. The Malt Shovel Inn is very extensive, comprising capital Tap Room, Front and Back Parlour, Bar, Cooking Kitchen, Scullery, Seven Chambers and Club Room, Pantry, Ale and Wine Cellars, Washhouse and Three Servants Rooms, with Coal House, Stabling for 320 Horses, and a large garden and Drying Ground. This sounds a much larger premises than the Malt Shovel we knew in later years.
Henry Causer was the owner and licensee from 1894 - 1922. The Causer family owned Spon End businesses Causer's Bakery, Causer And Son Undertakers which was next door, a coal firm, a haulage business and a horse-drawn taxi service. They also owned or ran city pubs - The Globe, Albion Street and the O'Rare Ben Johnson, New Street.
This was a home brew pub until c1920.
Until the 1970s the toilets were at the bottom end of the yard. Then the indoor toilet block was built, and the private accommodation downstairs was opened out to become part of the pub. There was a small upstairs room used for folk clubs and functions. In 1985 the owners, Ansells, rebranded it as a Heritage Inn. In that year the local branch of CAMRA said that it was 'an old pub close to the city centre with two separate drinking areas. Pleasant decorations and superb beer, reckoned by the local branch to be the best in the inner city area'.
Yet by 2011 it was closed and undergoing refurbishment to become an alternative therapy centre.A malt shovel is a utensil used to turn grain in a maltings. It is used as a common representation of brewing. | |||
LICENSEES:1822 - 1829 Sarah Garner (Garnet) 1845 - 1871 Thomas Sergeant 1874 - 1881 T. North 1890 - 1891 Mrs Anne North 1893 Frederick North 1894 - 1922 Henry Causer. 1924 F. Hart 1926 - 1934 E. A. Beecham 1935 - 1936 Mrs D. V. Nicholls 1937 - 1940 T. Warden 1961 Emerald Violet Kington 1974 - 1985 John & Kath Lee c1998 - 2011 Nigel Ashby | |||
OWNERS:1961 - 1985 Ansells BREWERS: 1870 - 1877 Thomas North 1877 - 1887 Mrs Jane North 1887 - 1892 Frederick North 1892 - 1920 Henry Causer | |||
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