Gold Diggers Arms, High road and Gladstone road, Buckhurst Hill

Gold Diggers Arms, High road and Gladstone road, Buckhurst Hill

Buckhurst Hill pub history index

Gold Diggers Arms, High road and Gladstone road, Buckhurst Hill

Gold Diggers Arms, High road and Gladstone road, Buckhurst Hill

The building which began as the Gold-digger’s Arms (the photograph is from the book by Stephen Pewsey)

Provided by Lynn H Jones

The Gold Diggers Arms

This was situated on the corner of the High road and Gladstone road, where the beginnings of St John’s Terrace and St John’s Court are now. According to Stephen Pewsey, what later became the Red House was built in 1868 as a public house, the Gold-digger’s Arms, supposedly by a miner returning from the Australian goldfields. *

This is confirmed by the census of 1871 which states the Gold-digger’s Arms was run by Charles Rayner, a publican who also ran the Title Deed in Queen's Road. His wife was Mary and they had at that time five children; Sarah, the eldest born in Forest Gate, and the others, Clara, John, Edward and Lucy, all born in Buckhurst Hill, indicating that the family were in Buckhurst Hill by 1860.
In 1872 the building ceased to be a public house when it was purchased by Nathanael Powell of Luctons as a school to train girls in domestic and laundry work. *

References :

Pewsey, Stephen Chigwell and Loughton a Pictorial History Phillimore 1995


* Provided by Lynn H Jones

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  • And Last updated on: Thursday, 25-Jan-2024 15:42:04 GMT