Past & Present

The Trent Tavern is a pub located on Dividy Road. It was opened in 1960, and the building boasts of a traditional 1960’s style whilst retaining a very similar look in recent years.

The pub features a large traditional bar, a pool table and a darts throw. Internally, the pub has a spacious lounge facing Dividy Road and a dining area facing Fenton Road. Externally, there is a large car park on the front and side of the pub and a large garden to the rear. This present pub is a reincarnation of a former hostelry of the same name. One particular landlord of this previous pub, George Wilshaw, appeared before magistrates in 1873 on a charge of being drunk and riotous and with permitting drunkenness in his house. It was stated that he had kept the old Trent Tavern for 26 years, without a complaint made against him. However, this is not to say that this pub was always free of trouble – as there were many incidents that had occurred in this pub. In 1864, two customers (George Moore and Thomas Rhead) also found themselves before the magistrates for an ugly incident in which George struck Thomas in the face and kicked his dog. The stipendiary dismissed the case as a “public house squabble.” Many coroners’ inquests took place at the old Trent Tavern involving fatalities in the local pits. In 1872, John Jones, a collier at the Hanley and Bucknall Coal Company, was buried beneath debris. In 1873, Charles Beardmore died in a shaft accident at the Co-operative Coal Supply Company’s ‘Blakelow Colliery’. Thomas Jones also died in a shaft accident at Mossfield Colliery in 1874. In the same year, Herbert Ridge died in a roof-fall at the No. 2 pit of the Lawn Colliery, Bucknall. William Adams, collier, died at the Berry Hill Colliery in 1919, again as a result of a roof-fall involving 15 cwt of coal. In each of the afore-mentioned cases, the coroner returned verdicts of “accidental death” underlining the routine disregard by private companies for the safety and welfare of their employees. Many decades later, Worthington and Company decided to rebuild and re-locate the Trent Tavern from the outskirts of Longton to the heart of Bucknall. The company explained at the time the previous pub was hemmed in by other properties, had no garden and no space to park a car. Not only that, but it was “situated on one of the most complex road junctions in Stoke-on-Trent.” According to breweries, this type of pub was no longer wanted in the 1960s. The company declared: “A car park is essential for a public house these days.” The concept for the new public house was to be built in an acre of ground, have a garden and terrace to the rear, as well as parking spaces for 46 cars. It was to boast of two main rooms: a lounge and public bar. This new public house was built in Bucknall on Dividy Road. On 12th April 1960, at 10PM, the old public house (described as being “just a few yards on the Longton side of the River Trent” with “small rooms”) closed its doors for the final time. The very next day, the new Trent Tavern in Bucknall opened its doors at 6PM. Customers were able to transfer their allegiance from the old public house to the new one in double-quick time. The pub originally sold beers from Bass, Ratcliffe and Gretton Limited – as well as those of Worthington and Company. The architects for the Trent Tavern in Bucknall were Messrs. Forshaw, Greaves and Partners of Newcastle. These architects constructed The Lambourne in Blurton, also in 1960, as well as several other new pubs in the area. [2]

As of June 2023, the pub is undergoing an interior and exterior renovation - with upgrades to the tables and seating areas in the inside to freshly-painted brickwork on the outside.