Lost pub · Longtown
The George & Dragon
- Gone
- Licence extinguished with compensation, 1909
- There now
- Not recorded
- Address
- English Street, Longtown
- Where exactly
- On English Street, by the Solway CAMRA directory. The exact spot isn't known, so the pin marks the street, not the building.
Longtown's oldest recorded inn, with a first reference as early as 1732, so older than the planned town the Grahams of Netherby laid out round it. The Solway CAMRA directory of the district's pubs puts it on English Street.
It was a house where business was done. In July 1851 houses and gardens at Banker's Hill, late the property of Mrs Grace Bulman, were auctioned there one evening at six, leasehold under Sir James Graham with about forty years of a ninety-nine-year lease to run. Ten years later the railway was being built through the district and the navvies drank at the George and Dragon: in April 1861 Henry Carr got three months' hard labour for stealing a pair of strong navvy's boots there from William Barclay, a navvy, and P.C. Kearton found them on him in one of the town's lodging houses.
Mr Forster had it in 1871, when the prize cart stallion Clydesdale Tam, touring the district to serve mares, spent his Thursday nights at the George and Dragon, coming in by Crosby and Westlinton. In June 1886 David Wilson of the George and Dragon was one of three landlords, with Frank Blackburn of the White Swan and James Johnston of the Marquis of Granby, licensed to sell drink in tents at the Longtown sports.
It went under the Licensing Act of 1904, which let the justices refer houses they thought redundant to a county authority that closed them with compensation paid for by the trade. In 1909 the Longtown justices referred four of the town's houses. Monkhouse's Spirit Vaults fought its case and kept its licence. The owners of the other three, the Scotch Arms, the Marquis of Granby and the George and Dragon, did not apply for renewal, and in June 1909 the Cumberland Compensation Authority sent all three for compensation. Other records give 1906 or about 1908.
Sources
- Mike Tuer, "Pubs of Carlisle" Day 194, Old Photos of Carlisle and Surrounding Area (Facebook)
- SOLWAY_PUB_DIRECTORY_Excl_Carlisle_Ver1.xls (Solway CAMRA / Stirling's list of Cumberland public houses, 1829-1938)
- Carlisle Journal, 4 July 1851, p. 2: 'Leasehold property in Longtown for sale', at the George and Dragon Inn (via British Newspaper Archive)
- Carlisle Journal, 30 April 1861, p. 4: 'Stealing boots', Brampton petty sessions (via British Newspaper Archive)
- Carlisle Patriot, 14 April 1871, p. 1: 'To serve mares this season', Clydesdale Tam, at Mr Forster's George and Dragon Inn (via British Newspaper Archive)
- Carlisle Patriot, 4 June 1886, p. 5: 'Longtown Police Court', special licences for the sports (via British Newspaper Archive)
- Carlisle Journal, 4 June 1909, p. 6: 'Cumberland Compensation Authority: the "principal" meeting' (via British Newspaper Archive)
Also lost in Longtown
- The Bush Hotel
- The White Swan Hotel
- The Wheatsheaf Hotel
- The Scotch Arms Hotel
- The Marquis of Granby
- Monkhouse's Spirit Vaults
6 other lost pubs stood within 250 m of here. See them on the map