Mason’s Arms (Tin Street)

The Mason’s Arms, Plymouth, as opposed to the Mason’s in Devonport or the Masonic in Stoke, was located at 13 Tin Street (now known as the northern stretch of Vauxhall Street) on the Barbican. It was open and trading 150 years ago, when, on Christmas Day 1859, a group of men met at the home and workshop of Charles Goodanew, shoemaker and newsagent, and decided to form what became the Plymouth Co-operative Society.

Just across the road, incidentally, was and indeed still is, the narrow Tin Lane, leading out past the Cooperage to what was then known as Tin Quay which presumably was where a lot of tin from Dartmoor was once shipped – it was alongside Dung Quay incidentally.

A busy industrial area, it’s not surprising to note that Tin Street boasted several pubs at that time.

Licensees

1847 - Richard Smoldridge
1850 - William Short
1852 - Thomas Calleghan
1857 - John Williams
1862 - Robert Sarell
1867 - Jane Hyne