The Tump House is located in an area known as Furness Bottom on the New Road outside Blakeney. There is an old photograph of Edwardian men and ladies outside the Tump House. The men are in their customary flat caps and jackets whilst the ladies are apparently dressed in their Sunday finery. The front of the stone-built building has been whitewashed. There is a sign on the side wall which clearly states that ‘beer, wines, spirits and tobacco to be consumed on the premises.’
Henry Adams was the owner of the Tump House Inn in 1891 and it traded free of brewery tie. It was classified as an alehouse and the annual rateable value was £18.0s.0d. It seems that the voracious appetite of the Stroud Brewery Company to gain more public houses bought out the Tump House from Henry Adams as in 1903 it was a Stroud Brewery pub. Closing time was 10 pm.
The 1960 celebratory book on 200 years of brewing at the Cheltenham and Stroud Breweries has a photograph of Mrs Francis Biddington who is said to have been resident at the Tump House since 1904. Presumably Miss Francis May Reeves, listed in the 1939 Kelly’s Directory, is her maiden name.
On 11th June 1999 the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley ‘Review’ newspaper gave the following account:
‘Readers have let us know about many old cider mills in the (Forest of Dean) area. Terry Noble of the Old Tump House, Blakeney, has a well-preserved example from the days when it was the Tump House Inn.
“The pub was located at the end of a little valley shown as Old Furnace on old maps and would have served the iron smelters operating along the stream,” he says. “At that time it was a two-up, two-down cottage with a single storey brew house alongside. Business must have been good in the early 1800’s, for a new extension adding a substantial high ceiling bar was constructed over the brew-house – with a large meeting room with access from the pub at first floor level.
“A separate cider mill was built at some stage with a horse driven crushing wheel and trough, and cider press which exists unchanged to this day. Until 1937 the pub was brewing its own beer and cider but it was then bought by the Stroud Brewery. The cider mill continued to be used for the benefit of the licensee’s family.
“The function room was for many years the largest meeting room in the village and was used by a number of organisations. Many Foresters will have memories of the pub as a family meeting place at weekends – though only the men were allowed in the bars and the women and children gathered in the area in front of the building.”
In April 2012 the former inn was put on the market with an asking price of £435,000. The details of sale were: ‘The property is at present arranged as two self-contained cottages, one as a rental property. Also included in the package is a detached cider barn with original press, crusher and apple bin, all set in about and acre of garden and ground bounded by a stream. The property is divided into a two-bedroom, two-bathroom cottage and a three bedroom, three bathroom cottage. There is a wealth of character throughout with Inglenook fireplaces, wood panelling, original stone staircase and exposed floorboards. An ideal country retreat for two generation dwelling combined with the potential for income as a holiday cottage or Bed and Breakfast.’
The building is now called cider barn, a self-catering holiday cottage at the Old Tump House.
Landlords at the Tump House Inn include:
1885,1891 Henry Adams
1902 Charles Prosser
1903 Charles Rosser (sic)
1906,1927 James Reeves
1939 Miss Francis May Reeves
1960 Mrs Francis Biddington
