Lost pub · Finkle Street

The Ordnance Arms

Gone 1903

Gone: Declined a licence renewal, 1902; final tenancy agreement December 1903
There now: Unknown
Address: 3 Finkle Street
Where exactly: On Finkle Street. The exact spot isn't known, so the pin marks the street, not the building.

At 3 Finkle Street, trading from 1811 and named on the 1865 Ordnance Survey map. A John Matthews was an innkeeper at 'Scotch-gate' in Jollie's directory of 1811, which could be this house or the Scotch Street Ordnance Arms, and Parson and White's directory of 1829 has John Matthews keeping this one. That other Ordnance Arms, on Scotch Street, went on to become the Three Cannons: a different pub under the same name.

It ran across the late nineteenth century under a series of named tenants: Mary Gilkerson from 1861, and E. Gordon, who signed the innkeepers' memorial of February 1867. In September 1886 its licence passed from David Ivison to Tom Johnston. Christopher Little had it from the 1880s, listed in the city directories from 1893 to 1897, and the photograph in a Cumberland News column of 28 June 1991 shows the pub in his time. In September 1897, when it was an Old Brewery Company house, the licence passed from C. Little to Tom Tweddle, who had it by 1901.

The 1991 column calls it a pub opposed by two armies, the Salvation Army and the military based in the Castle. In 1899 the licence was to move. On 29 September confirmation was sought of a provisional licence granted earlier that month to J. R. Paterson of the Carlisle Old Brewery for removing it from the old site in Finkle Street to new premises at the corner of Finkle Street and Castle Lane, directly opposite the Salvation Army Barracks. At the earlier hearing the justices had favoured the scheme but were concerned at the number of entrances to the new pub and called for modified plans, and at the resumed hearing it was said that all doors into Castle Lane had been deleted.

The officer commanding the forces at the Castle and the Captain of the Salvation Army still objected. Mr Postlethwaite, speaking for them, called it a huge gin palace at the Castle gates and a barefaced attempt to add largely to the city's drinking facilities. Major Barkworth, commanding the depot, said the pub could be put out of bounds to the soldiers, but would need extra supervision by the military police and would tempt a man to disobey orders, for which the punishment was severe. Captain Camp of the Salvation Army objected to a licensed house in front of the main entrance to the Barracks. The justices retired and granted a six days licence.

In 1902 the city council declined to renew the licence, and the Carlisle Journal's report of the adjourned licensing sessions of March 1903 lists the old house among six city licences that would cease after April that year. A final tenancy agreement in December 1903 confirms it had by then closed for good. Its site was taken by the dual carriageway of Castle Way in front of the Castle.

Photograph

Sources 9

Carlisle Encyclopaedia, "O" page
The Cumberland News, 28 June 1991, p. 4: 'Pubs of yesteryear', Ordnance Arms, Finkle Street (via newspapers.com)
Carlisle Patriot, 22 February 1867, p. 7: 'Carlisle Town Council: the Public House Closing Act', with the innkeepers' memorial (via British Newspaper Archive)
Carlisle Patriot, 10 September 1886, p. 3: 'Carlisle Brewster Sessions' (via British Newspaper Archive)
Carlisle Patriot, 10 September 1897, p. 3: 'Licensing Sessions: City of Carlisle' (via Findmypast)
Carlisle Journal, 3 March 1903, p. 6: adjourned licensing sessions for Carlisle, the Cumberland Ward and Brampton (via British Newspaper Archive)
Carlisle Patriot, 25 September 1891, p. 6: 'Public houses in Carlisle sixty years ago', reprinting the 1829 Parson and White directory list (via British Newspaper Archive)
Jollie's Cumberland Guide & Directory (Carlisle: F. Jollie & Sons, 1811), Carlisle directory, pp. i-xxii: Matthews John, innkeeper, Scotch-gate (Google Books scan of the Bodleian copy)
W. Parson and W. White, History, Directory, and Gazetteer of the Counties of Cumberland and Westmorland (Leeds, 1829), pp. 163-164: Carlisle inns and taverns (University of Leicester digital copy)

Open question

A date we can't pin down

Was the new Ordnance Arms at the corner of Finkle Street and Castle Lane ever built? The Cumberland News of 28 June 1991 says the justices granted a six days licence for it in September 1899, but this site has the old house refused renewal in 1902 and gone by December 1903, and Tom Tweddle in the old house in 1901.

If you know the answer, or where it might be found (an old photograph, a family story, a document), tell us and it goes into the story above.

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