Burton Inn

It stood not far from the junction with Frankfort Street and King Street and was one of eight or nine properties that at one time or another sold beer in Cambridge Street in the late-nineteenth century and early part of the twentieth century.

The Burton appears to have closed earlier than some of the other, sometime during the First World War, but certainly it was open for over fifty years.

Quite where the name came from is unclear, it may have been an indirect reference to the Breton raids on Plymouth 450 years earlier (cf Burton Boys) or it may have been a more recent reference to Burton on Trent where a part time brewer called Bass started a small business back in the eighteenth century. He followed a monastic tradition;

‘The Abbot of Burton brewed good ale,
On Fridays when they fasted –
But the Abbot of Burton never tasted his own
As long as his neighbour’s lasted.’

Licensees

1864 - William Hearn
1873 - Richard Hearn
1890 - Clement Hearn
1895 - Thomas Dodridge
1904 - L Buxton
1911 - R Doyle