Lost pub · Great Corby
The Corby Bridge Inn
- Built
- 1830s
- Gone
- Closed early in 2015
- There now
- Sold to a property developer; residential by 2018
- Address
- Beside the level crossing, Great Corby
- Where exactly
- Placed from the Ordnance Survey grid reference, NY4715054788, in Historic England's gazetteer of the scheme's premises. The building's use in 2018: residential.
The village's second pub, a hundred yards or so from the Queen Inn and named for the viaduct beside it. It was built in the 1830s, 1838 by Historic England's gazetteer, to serve travellers on the new Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, whose line crosses the Eden on the viaduct right by the door. It opened before 1840 as the Sportsman and took the name Corby Bridge Inn in 1849. It's said to be the oldest railway pub in the world, on the reasoning that it opened the same year the viaduct itself was finished. It's Grade II listed, list entry 1120829, listed 22 September 1983.
In May 1877 its licence passed from Robert Harding to John Forster, formerly of the Crown Hotel at Wetheral. In March 1903 the police objected to the tenant, Joseph Davies, though not to the house, and the New Brewery Company asked for time to find somebody else. Asked whether Mrs Davies would do, the bench said no: not, one magistrate explained, to Mrs Davies personally, 'but as being a wife'.
In July 1916 the Cumberland News listed it as the Corby Bridge Inn, Corby Bridge, next to the Queen at Great Corby. It was a Carlisle New Brewery house when the scheme took it in October 1916, or August by the gazetteer, and it is on the scheme's 1920 roll as the Corby Bridge Hotel, number 81; Great Corby had two pubs on the roll, this and the Queen. The scheme sold it to Greenall Whitley in April 1973. It closed in April 2015 after being sold to a property developer, and the gazetteer found it in use as a house by 2018. Only the Queen is still pouring.
Sold to Greenall Whitley as part of Group 2, handed over on 4 April 1973. Who bought the rest
Photograph
Sources 10
- Brewery History Society: the 1920 roll of Carlisle & District State Management Scheme pubs
- Historic England listing 1120829: Corby Bridge Inn, Great Corby, listed 22 September 1983
- Co-Curate: Great Corby, the Corby Bridge Inn closed early 2015, thought to be the oldest railway pub in the world
- CUMBERLAND_PUBS_4.xls (Cumberland pubs database)
- Mike Tuer, "Pubs of Carlisle" Day 166, Old Photos of Carlisle and Surrounding Area (Facebook)
- Historic England, Countering the 'deadliest of foes': public houses of the Central Control Board and the State Management Scheme, 1916-73 (Clare Howard, Research Report 89-2018): Appendix C, gazetteer of scheme premises
- The Cumberland News, 8 July 1916: 'First State tavern: to be opened by Lord Lonsdale', with the list of licensed houses in the Cumberland Ward and Longtown divisions (via newspapers.com)
- Carlisle Express and Examiner, 26 May 1877, p. 7: 'Courts', transfer of licences (via British Newspaper Archive)
- Carlisle Patriot, 25 May 1877, p. 6: 'The Courts, Carlisle', transfer of licences (via British Newspaper Archive)
- Carlisle Journal, 3 March 1903, p. 6: adjourned licensing sessions for Carlisle, the Cumberland Ward and Brampton (via British Newspaper Archive)
Still serving, near where it stood
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430 maway
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490 maway
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860 maway
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1.7 kmaway