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The Seven Stars, Winsley
Winsley, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
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The Seven Stars pub in Winsley takes its name from the stars of the Plough in the constellation of Ursa Major; in the late 20th century its sign featured the Plough with the subtitle “Jack and his team”.
There is a reference to the pub in 1755, when Cornelius Broad was both landlord and a butcher, but a Richard Broad had already been paying rates on it in the 1720s. Cornelius died in 1757 and was succeeded by his eldest son James. Abel Broad was victualler there in 1775 at the time he made his will. Another Cornelius Broad, who died in 1822 was was listed as landlord and brewer, followed by George Broad, who also a blacksmith. At the time of the 1841 Census and the Bradford Parish Tithe Map it was held by Moses Hanks, who worked as a butcher too, but he died in 1855 at only 44 years.
Despite having a thatched roof, the pub escaped destruction by the great fire that destroyed the terrace of thatched houses on the opposite side of the road in 1863.
In Bradford on Avon Museum is a billhead from Richard Edmonds, dated 1888. He was still at the Seven Stars in 1894. The pub was advertised for sale in 1903 and must have been bought by the Bradford on Avon brewery of Wilkins Bothers & Hudson; the Wilkins family came from the village and it is probably not a coincidence that their initial pub in Bradford and the brewery itself were also called the Seven Stars, in Newtown. By 1900 the pub was in the hands of Herbert George Bowles, whose family were and still are farmers in the village. When the Wilkins brewery was bankrupted after the Great War, all its properties including the Seven Stars were bought by Usher’s Brewery of Trowbridge.
The wall facing the road with a covered area behind was removed in the 1960s. Major alterations were carried out by Usher’s Brewery in 1985, with demolition of the skittle alley and some unused derelict buildings, making an extension against the front of the right hand side and alterations to the car parking and garden.
Part of a an old photograph shows the Seven Stars, on the right, still having a thatched roof, like Church Cottages in the distance and other houses in the village. The pub’s thatch was destroyed by fire in 1928 and it was replaced with tiles.
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In about 1970 with the roadside wall and shed recently demolished
The interior of the bar from the same piece of Usher’s Brewery publicity material
The street side entrance, with steps for mounting a horse or carriage on the left
Second from the right is the publican Hubert Elms (1880-1959). He and his wife Florence Kate Pike had held the Ludlow Arms in Westbury until 1911. She held the licence while he was in the Wiltshire Regiment in the Great War and again in the 1920s and 1930s when he was ill.
During the Second World War and afterwards, their son Leonard Henry (Len, 1910-1979) took over the pub, but it was mostly run by his wife Kitty as he was also working as a rep for F.A. Slugg, the Trowbridge printer and later for Dotesio Ltd. In the photograph they are with their daughter Marilyn (1936-2018) outside the pub.
Like many pubs, the Seven Stars was the base of a savings club, with Len Elms as Treasurer. The pub had also been the meeting place of a friendly society in the late 19th century.