The Norwood Arms

The Norwood Arms was named in honour of the Norwoods, Lords of the Manor of Leckhampton, from 1486 to 1797. It was built in 1821 as a southern gateway into Cheltenham by Samuel Kearsey, who later claimed it had been the only house in the area, with a beautiful stream from Leckhampton Hill flowing past.

Two years later, in 1823, the New Bath Road & Shurdington Road were fully opened, as toll roads, with gates on the side roads, a toll house near to the present small roundabout and weighing machines to calculate the carter’s fees.

The inn was a welcome stopping place for the people taking part in the traditional practice of "beating the bounds" of the large parish of Leckhampton. The churchwarden's accounts for the 1830s include 7 gallons of beer at 3d a pint!

But there were some troubling accounts of crime and drunkenness; in May 1842 Wat Fleming was fined 5 shillings after being found lying drunk across the tramway next to the Inn at 1.30 am. And in 1862 William Jones, who described himself as a tramp from New York, refused to pay for his drink. The landlord, Mr Henry Vines, followed him to two or three other public houses in Bath Road where he used the same dodge. When arrested by the police Jones apparently made use of "the most disgusting language"!

After the tramroad closed in 1861 the Bath Road toll was abandoned, the toll house was dismantled and the weighing machine was sold off.

In 1884 the Ladies Society for the Protection of Animals donated the horse trough next to the inn but the cost of laying on water had to be borne by the (rather dismayed) Town Council. Ironically 30 years later, in 1914, Alfred Ebden of Churchdown was fined 10 shillings for kicking his horse when it refused to drink from this trough! What would the ladies have thought?

Walk north along Bath Road on the left hand pavement.