Records show that the inn dates back at least to the 18th century – although its history may stretch back even further. To find out more, you can read ‘A History of the Pub's Landlords’ here.
By Carl Bedford
From the Alehouse Recognizance Books in Leicestershire Records Office, we have a complete sequence for the names of the publicans in Foxton from 1753 until 1827 and we can then follow their names through Census Returns and Trade Directories.
In the 18th and early 19th Century the law required publicans to provide surities for their maintaining good behaviour in their respective houses and these were recorded once a year by the Licensing Justices. Until 1825 only the name of the publican and the name (or names) of the persons standing as surity were given but in that year the name of the public house concerned was also entered.
From a notice published in the Leicester Journal of 7th July 1770, announcing the first meeting of the newly appointed Commissioners for the carrying out of the Foxton Enclosure, we learn that a William Barratt was the publican at the “Shoulder of Mutton” at that time. The name of William Barratt continues to be recorded each year until 1792 when a John Bent appears instead. We know that John Bent replaced William Barrett at the same establishment because William Barrett is entered as his surity for that year and the only other publicans recorded in Foxton, both named Thomas Coleman and probably father and son, appear in an unbroken sequence in the Alehouse Recognizance Books both before and after that date.
In 1809, John Bent was replaced by a John Brown who was then recorded by the Justices each year until 1827 when Alehouse Recognizances were no longer required. John Brown was also a Brickmaker in Foxton and probably took over the pub in conjunction with his other activities in the village. He was involved in making some of the bricks used in building the canal, both at Debdale and in Foxton and it may have been the completion of these contracts which led him to become a publican to gain an alternative source of income. Although not immediately adjacent to the canal, the paddocks surrounding the “Shoulder of Mutton” would have come in useful for pasturing the boat horses used for hauling the barges on the newly opened canal whilst cargoes were being unloaded at the wharf or the boatmen obtained refreshment. The Union Canal from Leicester and the North had terminated at Debdale Wharf near Gumley in 1796 when the promoters ran short of money and it wasn’t until 1809 that it was continued through Foxton village and on to Market Harborough.
How long the “Shoulder of Mutton” existed as a public house before 1753 is not yet known but from the somewhat unusual position of the Inn, not being directly on one of the village streets, it seems likely that the building was originally a farmhouse. From the existance of a bridle way and footpath, which lead from the Inn to the canal both in Foxton and at Debdale, it is possible that the premises had some connection with the canal trade prior to the continuation through Foxton in 1809. It appears that John Brown combined his brickmaking business with the running of the “Shoulder of Mutton” as a John Brown of Foxton was recorded as a brickmaker in a Poll Book of 1830 and in the 1841 Census the only John Brown entered was a brickmaker living in Silver Street (Main Street). From the position of the entry in the Census Return, this John Brown and his wife Deborah were no doubt living at the “Shoulder of Mutton” premises but for some reason he preferred to be recorded as a “brickmaker” rather than as a “publican”. He was already 68 years old at the time of the Census and we know from a 1846 Trades Directory that a John Coleman had taken over the “Shoulder of Mutton” by then so probably John Brown was preparing to retire from the Inn around 1841 when the Census was taken.
According to notes left in the Chapel Minute Books, the Brown Family transferred their brickmaking business from Debdale to Marston Trussell around 1830, probably because their clay pit was exhausted and this would account for there being only the elderly John Brown and his wife left in Foxton at the time of the 1841 Census - the rest of the family being over the border in Northamptonshire. This fact may have been the reason for the Foxton Parish Vestry making enquiries in 1848 as to John Brown’s legal settlement in Foxton. He would probably have needed support from the parish in his old age and the Overseers were always anxious to reduce Poor Relief if possible by invoking the Settlement Laws of the time. John Brown does not appear to have been buried in either Foxton Churchyard or the Chapel Graveyard when he died so perhaps he was required to go to live with one of his family elsewhere.
John Coleman also carried on the business of Horsedealer whilst he was landlord at the “Shoulder of Mutton” according to the 1851 Census and we know that the Coleman Family had not only kept earlier public houses in the village but that they were engaged in horsedealing at the end of the 18th Century, before the canal was built. By 1855, according to a Trades Directory, the Inn was being run by a Richard Claypole who was also a boot and shoe-maker. It appears that such dual occupation of innkeepers was very common at that time and points to the “licensed trade” being somewhat of a “part-time” job in those days.
We don’t know why John Coleman gave up the “Shoulder of Mutton”, as he was only 44 years old in 1851, but it appears that Robert Claypole didn’t stop very long either as by 1861 we learn from the Census Return that Benjamin Goodrich had moved from the “Black Horse” (the only other public house in the village at the time) and was keeping the “Shoulder of Mutton” instead. The Claypoles do not appear to have been a Foxton Family as they are not recorded on any of the 19th Century Census Returns but Benjamin Goodrich, who came from a very old Foxton Family, remained at the “Shoulder” for many years and opened the village’s first Post Office there prior to 1870. He appears to have died towards the end of the 1870’s when his widow Elizabeth was recorded as having become the Post Mistress and by 1880 a William Pearson had taken over as publican . From the 1881 Census, we learn that he came from Market Harborough and his wife from London. The Pearsons were a most unlucky family, losing their only son at the age of four, not long after taking over the “Shoulder of Mutton”, and William himself died in 1882 when only 49 years old.
His widow Elizabeth then married a villager named Joseph Packwood and they continued to run the “Shoulder” until he too died around 1888. Elizabeth Packwood then ran the pub for a short time but by 1890 a Walter Tailby had become the licensee. Whether Elizabeth Packwood decided Foxton was unlucky for her and returned to her native London we do not know, but she would only have been in her mid 40’s when widowed for the second time. Her first husband William Pearson and their little boy Albert John Thomas are both buried in Foxton Churchyard but their headstone makes no mention of her. There are other Pearsons buried at Foxton but as they do not appear on the Census Returns so far available we do not know what connection, if any, they had with the publican’s family.
Walter Tailby was a tailor as well as a publican and he came from Kimcote and his wife from Laughton. They had at least six children and had lived at both Laughton and Gumley before coming to Foxton. Three of their sons, Geoffrey, Oliver and Frank served in the First World War with Oliver losing his life and being recorded on the War Memorial in the Church.
By 1904 the “Shoulder of Mutton” had changed hands again and once more had a lady publican named Frances Annie Durrad, but she didn’t remain very long and was followed by William and Charlotte Proudman, whose daughter married into the local Spriggs Family. Unfortunately, Mrs Proudman died in 1907, not long after they had taken over the Inn. It seems that her husband William retired not long afterwards because by 1912 a Herbert Wells had become the landlord and he remained as publican throughout the First World War. His son Herbert Leonard Wells was another of Foxton’s war hero’s who gave his life in the Great War and whose name is also commemorated on the Memorial in the Church.
Early in the 1920’s William James Tombs became the landlord and he remained at the “Shoulder of Mutton” until just before the Second World War, when a William Gifford took over. Mr Gifford died in 1949 and then Mrs Gwen Hackett became the licensee and Mrs Hackett and her husband ran the “Shoulder” until recent times. Their daughter ‘Paddy’ Bailey still lives in the village together with her husband William (Bill) and their son Anthony (Tony) Hackett also became a publican in Northamptonshire who has recently published his memoirs of the licensed trade under the title “Both Sides of the Bar”.