Tumbledown Dick

Kinterbury Street, which originally ran at right angles to the thoroughfare that currently bears that name, ran northwards from Whimple Street. William Hawkins, twice mayor of Plymouth (1532 & 1538) had property here, as did Robert Spry. On 27 December 1647 the Lord Chief Baron Wilde wrote to him here, according to a reference cited by Henry Whitfeld in 1889. The reference is an interesting one, as in 1647 Oliver Cromwell was England’s Lord Protector (after the Civil War) and Tumbledown Dick is a pub name that was subsequently used here, and elsewhere, to acknowledge the fact that, twelve years later, Cromwell’s son, Richard, who had succeeded him in 1658, was forced to resign. Richard, a mild, virtuous, but not overly intelligent man spent the remaining years of his long life (1626-1712) mainly in France and Switzerland. Meanwhile his name was perpetuated here until the beginning of the nineteenth century.

Licensees

1804 - Thomas Crane