Pub – Viaduct Inn, Dinting

Location: Dinting Vale, Dinting

Former Names: Railway Tavern (1839-1846); Viaduct Inn (1846-1928)

Opened: 1839

Closed: 14 December 1928

Text from ‘History in a Pint Pot’ by David Field. Published by Glossop & District Historical Society in May 1999.

In 1839 Richard Preston a bookkeeper applied for an alehouse licence. This was granted the following year, the pub being called the Railway Tavern although the first sod for the railway had only been dug at Woodhead the previous year. However in 1846 when John Rhodes became licensee the line had been opened and the name changed to the Viaduct Inn. In the 1851 Census he was described as an innkeeper aged 58 with wife Martha, two children and one servant. One of the children George was described as a farrier probably using the single storey building next door, he remained licensee until 1857 when Samuel Wagstaffe moved down from the Howard Arms remaining as licensee until his death in 1880. His executors then ran the pub for a few months before his widow Lavinia took over until 1886 when their son Benjamin became licensee, he died a few months later and Samuel Smith became licensee.

In the 1872 Magistrate’s Records William Berry a doctor of Holmfirth was listed as the owner. In 1876 Samuel Wagstaffe took out a lease but in 1887 the pub was sold to Gartside’s Brewery. In 1928 renewal of the licence was refused and it was successfully referred for Compensation on the grounds of redundancy, the licence expired on 14th December 1928. The licensee since 1916 James Johnson received £250 compensation and Gartside’s Brewery £1376. The premises still exist today as the large house opposite Dinting Church.