Chequers - Hopwas - Old Pubs and Old Ales of Tamworth

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Licensees of the Chequers Inn 1828 - Thomas Proudman 1851 - John Proudman 1880 - Joseph Cowham 1891 - John W. Cowham 1904 - Alfred G. Ashwood 1912 - Harry Fox 1964 - 1973 William Lister 1973 - 1976 Peter Mobley 1976 - 1981 George Thomas Barston 1981 - 1983 Robert John Tipping 1983 - 1985 John Douglas Green 1985 - 1987 Peter Brian Drinkwater 1987 - 1987 Herbert Mann 1987 - 1989 James Alan Meek 1989 - 1990 Brian Spencer

Trading in the new millennium as the Tame Otter and operated by the Mitchell's and Butler's pub brand Vintage Inns, the former Chequers Inn stands on the corner of Lichfield Road and Hints Road. However, changing ownership throughout the 20th century has resulted in a wide variety of ales being sold inside the historic hostelry. The wonderful photograph from circa.1910, despite the tree, shows us that the pub was selling Truman's Burton Ales and London Stouts. Truman, Hanbury and Buxton Co.Ltd. started life in London in 1666 but became very much a Midlands brewer when the company purchased Phillips' Brewery at Burton in 1873. This was a response to the invasion of Burton-based beers into London after the development of the railways. The company rebuilt the brewery at Burton between 1874 and 1876 and called it the Black Eagle Brewery after their original brewery in Stepney. The Black Eagle Brewery was demolished in 1973, just two years after production ceased on the site. The company's name was changed to Truman's Ltd in 1971 when Grand Metropolitan Hotels Ltd. acquired the group. Three years later the firm was merged with Watney Mann Ltd.

In the photograph you can see that the front door faced Hints Road. Access to today's pub is via the car park. On the side of the building is the slogan "Parties catered for". Note also the unusual wooden Chequers Inn sign attached to the gable end. In the distance further up the hill next to the canal bridge is the Red Lion Inn. This was rebuilt in 1901 when kept by the Gamble family. Straddling the Coventry Canal, both pubs have profited from the waterway over the years.

Subsequent photographs of the Chequers Inn show that it received a mock-Tudor makeover in the late 1920's. The half-timbered look was not new to Hopwas. Nestling in the wooded hill, the Church of St.Chad has the look of a mock-Tudor house. Designed by John Douglas of Chester, it was built between 1879 and 1881 and charms most visitors. Even the often reserved art historian Nikolaus Pevsner described it as an "ingenious and entertaining building". The other notable structure in Hopwas is the bridge across the river. Featuring five three-centred round arches and double pilasters between, it was completed in 1790. Prior to this date, the river was crossed with stepping stones. The bridge enabled the London to Liverpool mail coach to take a quicker route into Tamworth where it called at the post office in Silver Street.

Other bridges in Hopwas are named after local families. For example, Ball's Bridge along Hints Lane was named after Charles Ball, a basket maker who built and lived in the adjacent cottages. Closer to the Chequers Inn, Nursery Lane [formerly called Erskins Lane] crossed the canal over Dixon's Bridge. This was named after the Dixon family. Legend has it that Mrs.Dixon used to bake bread for the navvies building the river bridge. In the 1840's Thomas Dixon was a shoemaker. It is thought that a beerhouse called The Beehive existed close to Dixon's Bridge. Certainly, the name of Thomas Fuller appears as a beer retailer in the early 1850's and, he too, was a shoemaker by trade.

The Chequers Inn is thought to have been built in 1736. This pub name is one of the most ancient and was introduced to Britain by the Romans. Indeed, there is evidence from Pompeii suggesting that it was already in use there. It probably indicated that the game of draughts was played in the tavern. The sign was later associated with a money table because the word Exchequer originally meant a chessboard. Indeed, in former times many pubs offered simple banking services and exchange systems so the sign was used in relation to advertise this additional activity.

The Proudman family kept the Chequers Inn during much of the 19th century. Thomas and Sarah Proudman were farmers as well as innkeepers. When Thomas Proudman died, he was succeeded by his son John. He had also married a woman called Sarah and the couple employed three servants, suggesting a busy hostelry. The Proudman's farmed some 80 acres, the produce from which may have been sold in Tamworth by grocer and proprietor of the New Inn, Benjamin Proudman, almost certainly part of the same family.

By the late 1850's John and Sarah Proudman had three children running around the place. When the couple died with a few years of each other in the mid-1870's eldest son Richard remained at the Chequers Inn and, as an annuitant, lived at the pub for the rest of the century. However, the Chequers Inn was run by Joseph and Martha Cowham. Born in 1837 in the Lincolnshire village of West Pinchbeck north of Spalding, Joseph Cowham was brought up on a farm before he headed for Derbyshire. In the early 1860's he was working as a potato merchant whilst living as a lodger at the Spread Eagle Inn at Chesterfield. The licensed trade clearly attracted him and, following his marriage, he moved to Winshill near Burton-on-Trent where he took on the licence of the Royal Oak.

Following Joseph Cowham's death in 1891, son John took over as licensee of the Chequers Inn. He kept the pub with his wife Jane, a local lass. The couple employed Fanny Pilsbury as a barmaid and Margaret Dyke as a domestic servant. Still living on the property, and now part of the furniture, was Richard Proudman.

The Cowham's went to run the Tweeddale Arms Hotel in Tamworth and the Chequers Hotel, as it was then known, was taken over by Alfred Ashwood, son of Edwin Ashwood who had rebuilt the Prince of Wales in Tamworth's Lower Gungate. When Edwin Ashwood retired he moved to Woodland House at Hopwas with his large family. However, son Alfred remained in Tamworth and continued to trade as a mineral water manufacturer. Perhaps his father spotted a business opportunity in the Chequers Hotel and advised Alfred to take over the business.

The Ashwood family's association with the Chequers Hotel only lasted throughout the Edwardian period. The arrival of Harry Fox as licensee may represent the date that brewers Truman, Hanbury and Buxton Ltd. bought the hotel. In 1934 Courage & Co.Ltd. took over the pub and beer choice in the bar changed again. This was a company steeped in brewing history. John Courage acquired the Anchor Brewery in Bermondsey in 1787 and between 1797-1851 traded as Courage and Donaldson. Becoming one of the big London breweries, the company merged with Barclay, Perkins & Co.Ltd. in 1955. They were bought out by Imperial Tobacco Group Ltd. in August 1972. The Chequers Hotel was leased to, and later acquired by, the Trust House Forte Group.

© Kieron McMahon [Pubs and Breweries of the Midlands: Past and Present]