Swanswell Cottage, 44 Leicester Street
| Alternative Addresses: | Swanswell Terrace, Dog Lane | ||
| These premises have been known by different names during their history: | FROM | TO | NAME |
| 1835 | 1963 | Swanswell Cottage | |
| 1841 | ? | Beerhouse | |
In 1841 this was the BEERHOUSE, Leicester Street.
In 1961 Jimmy Taylor said 'There is much evidence, both inside and outside, to denote that it goes back at least a couple of centuries, but in 1938 it had a big facelift which brought it up to date. There are still old oak beams in the bar and smoke room and the old type fireplaces.....A trap door leads down to the cellars which, with their crumbling nature, tell of years gone by'. There used to be several shops to the right (north) of the pub, demolished before the pub. In front there used to be several rows of houses, many destroyed in the Blitz of 1940. The pub was demolished to make way for the Ring Road in 1963.
 With gratitude to Hugh Cyril Harris, who has allowed us to use this super family photograph on the left, depicting his grandfather, Alf Harris, standing in front of the pub around 1920, enabling us to see how the pub looked before modernisation. Alf ran the Swanswell Cottage Inn from around 1919 until 1927. This name refers to a local pool, the Swanswell, which was the source of much of the water used in ancient Coventry. | |||
LICENSEES:1835 William Bellamy (moved to the Antelope, Gosford Street) 1835 Samuel Lichfield 1850 Thomas Eaves 1855 William Satchwell 1855 - 1858 John Porter (moved to Swanswell Stores, Hales Street) 1861 Samuel Russell 1868 - 1874 Isaac Molesworth & hairdresser 1879 John Beet 1886 J. Greenway 1890 - 1893 J. O. Sidwell 1894 - 1896 Mrs E. M. Sidwell 1903 J. B. Farr 1905 F. G. Hewitt 1909 George H. Twigger 1911 - 1913 William H. L. Masters 1919 - 1927 Alfred Harris 1931 - 1932 H. Heath 1933 - 1938 H. Horne 1939 - 1940 Mary Horne mid to late 1950s Frank James Allen (see also Cottage, St Johns Street and Hand and Heart, Far Gosford Street 1961 Eric Stout | |||
OWNERS:1961 Ansells | |||
 Street plan of 1851 | |||
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