In Dinnington’s main square, opposite the Anglican Church, is a Thai eatery which opened around 2004. Before that date it was the, a name given to at least 3 distinct buildings over a period of over 100 years (each worse that its predecessor in my opinion!).
The top photo is what stood on the site of the present day restauraunt until 1901 – The “Falcon Inn”. Its landlord/licensee according to Colin Dalton was “E Adams” in 1901 and “Edward Adams” in the 1927(?) mock tudor Falcon.
The 1901 Falcon was demolished circa 1910-1920….,
…to be replaced by the mock tudor creation below. The left/upper photo was kindly supplied by Alan Burke, the sepia tinted circa 1927 and the 1901 photo’s by Colin Dalton. Colin remembers buildings in the configuration on the lower right prior to their demolition (see Church Lane 1927 for a close up of them) , which would make the lighter coloured mock tudor Falcon an earlier picture. It bears no resemblance to the present day Falcon (bottom). Why did they demolish such a superb old building…..?
…..by way of answer I recieved an email from Pete Scott who lived in the Falcon as a child in the 1960s. His reply was:
“You wondered why the old Falcon was demolished and replaced in the late 60’s. I lived in the pub at the time. The old pub was taken down in 2 parts, the left hand side as you face the pub went first, and the new pub was built there, this was followed by the right side. The demolition was carried out by Jimmy Childs and sons from Rotherham, and the managed to set the building on fire as they demolished it.
We used to love the old pub as kids, there was a ballroom with sawdust all over the floor and we took great pleasure in getting covered in this. There was also a billiard room which had a hole in the floor where we could”bomb” the dray men with billiard balls as they delivered the beer. There were old stables to the rear of the pub, and there was a well in the yard that was about 40 feet deep [whose winch derrick may be visible on the 1901 photo?] , and this drew water from the same place as the old well at the bottom of Church Lane where we used to fish for Sticklebacks. On the down side however, there was a severe infestation with woodworm especially on the third floor and the main staircase which meant the whole place was in imminent danger of collapse. The heating was a coke boiler which got through coke at a rate which British Steel would have been ashamed of. All this contributed to the fact that the pub was just not economically repairable so down it came and a great building was lost.“
Below: “The Falcon” pub circa 2001. Incidentally, the Falcon motif is derived from the Athorpe family crest who became the first resident lords of the manor of Dinnington in 1678. See the Thorpe Hall page for details.
And the forlorn Falcon boarded up with steel shutters and up for sale, Feb 2003.