Sportsman’s Arms (Exeter Street)

It stood on a site now buried somewhere along the Exeter Street carriageway in front of Jury’s Inn, in what was Higher Street an ancient and thoroughfare that was formerly known as Hawk Street. It was doubtless called Higher Street incidentally because for centuries it more or less marked the northern boundary of the town and thus was the highest street. Being on the outskirts of town this would originally have been a much sought after area, in later years however it would have become multi-tenanted and not so salubrious, hence it’s removal in the twentieth century.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century there were two pubs here, the Alexander and Roxanna and the White Cow, these appear to have become, the Victoria and the Sportsman’s respectively. The latter closed sometime around 1920.

Licensees

1802 - Charles Bennett
1844 - S Croker
1847 - George Mugford
1862 - Charles Knighton
1865 - James Quarm
1880 - F Goodyear
1885 - Mrs E Batten
1903 - Mrs Annie Scown