Artillery Arms

It is likely that the Artillery Arms in Stonehouse is the only pub in Plymouth to have had at least ten different women serving as licensees in the last hundred years. Eliza Partridge, who appears to have succeeded her husband (here since 1905 at least) sometime during the First World War, has probably been the longest serving lady here. Eliza was here until 1939 and since her time no man has held this licence on his own for more than four years (and that was Robert Porter just after the Second World War).

Situated as it is right next to the Royal Marine Barracks, the Artillery has doubtless seen more servicemen pass through its doors than most Plymouth pubs and war and artillery talk has doubtless loomed large in the conversations here over the years, this century and last. Nevertheless it’s hard to imagine that when first opened, this Admiralty Street pub would have been right on the water’s edge and that among the first men to use this beerhouse (as it was until 1958) would have been those who were taken from the Barracks, by boat, across to Staddon Heights to use the famous brick wall firing range there.

However, before either the pub or the wall were very old, the wall was declared unsafe, because of the advances in artillery (notably the new Lee-Metford rifles) around 1890. Both wall and pub however still stand firm today.