Gloucestershire Pubs is the work of Geoff Sandles, a retired postman with a life-long passion for both beer and pubs. The ambitious, not-for-profit, project is aiming to document and describe all the known pubs in the county of Gloucestershire, both past and present.
Important Notice: Over the past 25 years or so I have been assembling a huge archive of pub material obtained from local newspaper cuttings, with a significant proportion extracted from the Gloucestershire Echo and the Gloucester Citizen. These titles are now owned by Reach plc. Many of the pub pages on this website had scanned copies of those newspaper cuttings which, at the time of posting, were reproduced in good faith but without seeking prior permission for use on the public domain.
Reach plc were contacted. I requested retrospective permission to use old newspaper cuttings taken from local newspapers, brands now in their ownership, that told the social history of pubs in Gloucestershire. A licensing fee was applicable to each reproduced article perceived to be in their ownership. Clearly that was a frightening prospect. There are 3,381 pub pages on the website.
Creating the Gloucestershire Pubs website over the years, as a hobby-based labour of love, has been an enjoyable project. Sadly, and with much frustration, I have had no option but to comply with Reach plc and undertake to remove their press cuttings, and ensure that any printed news articles are either edited or re-written.
Regrettably I have had to remove several hundred pub pages from the website to ensure compliance with Reach plc copyright legislation and policies. Eventually, one by one, those pages will be reinstated. That will inevitably take a lot of time.
The other option was just to give up and take the website down completely, with countless hours of work and passion done for nothing. The website was simply too good to take that dramatic course of action.
Despite the huge setback, the website still features hundreds of pubs that were trading over a hundred years ago. It remains a worthwhile project of which I am determined to carry on.
Thank you for your support. Please contact me if you want information on any “lost” pub.
Geoff Sandles (October 2026)
The Gloucestershire Pubs website is hosted by 99 web Limited. A special thank you to Ian Whitburn for ensuring that the Gloucestershire Pubs website has a secure future.
In fond memory of Dave Hedges, 13th May 1951 – 7th June 2024. It was Dave who set up this wonderful website and who so kindly helped build it up to the incredible resource it is today. Cheers Dave, you will never be forgotten.
If you can’t find what you are looking for try the help page or Contact Geoff.
© Geoff Sandles