Seven Stars Landlords
In the early 1600s, John Yeamans owned Bristol’s largest brewery which undoubtedly supplied the Seven Stars.
Yeamans brewing interests were later acquired by the Saunders family who became the dominant brewer in and around the city for the next hundred years.
By 1788 the Seven Stars was part of The Porter Brewery (founded by Isaac Hobhouse in 1730) that became Georges, Rickettes & Sons in 1816, later incorporated as The Bristol Brewery Georges & Company Limited in 1866.
The breweries organic growth together with the acquisition in 1889 of James & Pierce, The Bedminster Brewery, in 1911 that of R.W. Miller The Stokes Croft Brewery, in 1912 The Lodway Brewery of Messrs. Hall & Sons, situated at Pill, in 1918 The Brewery of John Arnold & Sons, Wickwar, in 1919 The Welton (Somerset) Brewery, Chippenham, The Ashton Gate Brewery Co. Ltd. in 1932, the Bath Brewing Company in 1923, Slade’s Brewery in Chippenham in 1926 and finally in 1956, control of their only remaining rivals Bristol United Breweries Ltd saw the company own and control close to one thousand pubs, taverns and inns in and around Bristol.
In the summer of 1961 the Bristol Brewery Georges & Co Ltd was taken over by the London based brewing firm of Courage Barclay & Simonds Ltd, thus finally removing the last independent brewer in the city.
Ushers of Trowbridge, renamed Ushers Brewers Ltd in 1964 was the last brewer that controlled the Seven Stars, and in early 2000 it reverted to being the freehouse it had been some 300 years before.
So with thanks to many, but not forgetting Bristols Lost Pubs and Kevin Brice here are landlords and landladies of the Seven Stars.
1660. Michael Jaine (died 1672)
1672. Abraham Saunders (died 1690)
1690. John Hawkins
1752. Moses Mills
1785. William Thompson
1792. David Thomas
1800. John Barnes
1806. Joseph Morgan
1816. John Tucker
1822 – 1828. William Heath
1830 – 1844. George Thorne
1847. Charles Norman
1848. A. Merchant
1849 – 1856. Charles Gregory
1858. William Morgan
1863. William Hann
1865. William Gough
1866. John Gardner
1867 – 1877. William Torrington
1878. J. Coles
1879. Thomas Cook
1881 – 1887. Jacob Clements
1889 – 1896. Charles Burford
1897 – 1901. George Henry Peach
1904. A. H. Beavis
1906. William Deacon
1909. Elizabeth Britton
1914. Joseph Dutchemin
1917. George Jackson
1921. Albert Veal
1925. Benjamin Frost
1928 – 1931. Mary Ann Withy
1935. Mary Blatchford
1937 – 1953. Rebecca Watkins
Early 1960’s – 1970 Bill Sweet
1971-1976. John Hayley
1976-1980 Arthur Bishop
1991-2003 Sue Whiting
2004-2005 Stuart Marshall
2006. SR Smith
2007 – 2009. Steve Niven & Katy Hardwick (DPS). SR Smith (PLH)
2010 – 2014. Paul Wratten (DPS). SR Smith (PLH)
2015 – 2019. Darren Kaye (DPS). SR Smith (PLH)
2020 – 2021 Shaun Nanney(DPS). SR Smith (PLH)