BELPER HISTORY: Public Houses & Publicans

Almost all the people associated with our land had two things in common: their profession as victuallers (and often nailers) and their faith as early dissenters, either Methodists or more commonly Presbytarians who were later called Unitarians although their beliefs were slightly different.

I was most interested to find that a STRUTT of BLACKWELL (Antony Strutt) was a licenced Victualler in 1577 confirming the statements about the Strutt family being Malsters (I am referring to William Strutt, the husband of Martha Statham of Shottle.)

Accordingly, we looked into the list of Belper Victuallers. Here are the names listed for all years from 1767 to 1776. An Excel chart (downloadable) also lists the years in which each name occurs.

Much earlier, in 1577 to be exact, the list of "such as kepe Taverns and Ale Howsys" already included some names associated with this project. In Belper there were five taverns (for fewer than a hundred houses). Listed as Inn-Keepers were:

• John Bradshaw
• Wido Stret
• John Gyte
• Edmund Andrew
• Thomas Smyth.

Nearby, in Heage were:

• Garman Hill
• Henry Bunting
• John Thornsworth
• John Both
• William Ellyot
• Olyver Chetham
• Widow Ashburn

And in Hazelwood, Turnditch and Windley were:

• Richard Key
• Nicholas Bromley