Punch Bowl Inn Main Street Stapenhill Burton On Trent - part 1

odeon master · May 29, 2014

This report documents the second of 3 Pubs i visited recently.
The Punch Bowl Stapenhill was very much a supprise to me to be derelict and awaiting demolition, it was what i thought a local landmark building and what everybody local really thought was part of the Stapenhill gardens.
I have known this pub all my life and driven past it on a regular basis for ever really, been in it in the past also.
I had allways assumed it was a much older building than it actually was, i thought it was a 200 plus year old pub having the tudor beams and shapes on it, but no, on close up inpection and after doing research it turns out to be a 1930's built pub built in a tudor style.
It replaced a much smaller pub roughly in the same location which was also called the Punch Bowl Inn, and it was built around the same time Stapenhill pleasure gardens were created.
I have many childhood memeories walking round the stapenhill gardens, and recall seeing the Punch bowl at the edge of it, it was considerd part of the gardens really and the 2 went hand in hand.
I did notice the pub for sale just over a year ago, but it was being sold as a going concern, and was marketed as such, details can still be seen on the internet showing photos of it open and in use.
It then suddenly was closed, and all grilled up with steel shutters on every door and window as per norm, it remained for sale, i did think what a shame, wonder whats going to happen to it.
Then after about 8 months of being grilled up, the grills came off again and for sale board was removed, i thought, oh, its open again.
If you drove past from the road, it really did look like it was open, nothing untoward at all, and no broken windows at the front.
It was only when i was chatting to a demolition guy i know he goes ' the punch bowls comin down' and i was shocked really.
How could they pull down such a lovely old building as this?
So i went to investigate, and sure enough, when round the back, the door was kicked in, broken windows, rubbish piled up, it was derelict allright.
So here are the photos that i took last october november time, i was shocked how internally stripped it had become in only about 3 months of being de grilled, i was told the polish had been in and stripped it as a lot of them are local to it.
Strangely all the floorboards had been removed and had gone off site, along with the ususal copper and everything else that was takeable.
It was mad how a fully open respecable pub had become like this in less than 1 year, it ended up being demolished in December just before Christmas last, so a quick turnaround from open to flattened.
Its got planning apporoved for a 42 bed nursing home, but as of yet, nothing has happened to this site since demolition.
Its a lovely large, top quality built pub, or should i say WAS.
Quality brickwork on the bottom half, and the top half all tudor timbered, we all know and loath the modern estate built houses with mock tudor wood on them, but this building had a top quality half timbered construction, all the tudor timber was morticed and tennoned together held with wooden dowl pegs that protruded from the surface, cement render filled the inlays and was painted white.
The fact it had not gone rotton says a lot for the quality, again, the windows, top quality timber frames with steel crittal inserts with real leaded light glass and at the front real stain glass windows.
Anyway, enough of me waffling, and onto the photos, hope you find them interesting as i do.

Genuine punch bowl stain glass window !

side elevation

THIS IS THE VIEW AS YOU WALK THROUGH STAPENHILL GARDENS, THE PUB LOOKED LIKE IT WAS PART OF IT.

THIS OLD ARCH WAS FROM THE ORIGINAL PUNCH BOWL PRIOR TO THE 1930'S BUILT PUB, ITS SITUATED WITHIN THE STAPENHILL GARDENS AND IS STILL RETAINED TODAY, THIS WAS THE OLD REAR ENTRANCE LEADING THROUGH THE PUBS OWN BOWLING GREEN NOW PART OF THE GARDENS.