Lost pubs: The Foaming Quart, by Mervyn Edwards

The Foaming Quart in High Street (later Greenhead Street) was located at a short distance from Liverpool Road, once part of the network of coaching roads. Warrillow gives the date of the pub’s origins as “probably between 1700-1750.”

An unusual case appeared in the local press 1844. Cecil Pope fell asleep after a number of drinks at the White Hart (now the Huntsman) in nearby Liverpool Road. One of the men he had been drinking with, Joseph Hollinshead, took off the leg, “depriving him of the means of getting home on Monday night last”. The defendant ran away with it and placed it in the Foaming Quart. Magistrate T. B. Rose judged that “it was carrying a joke too far, to deprive a man of his leg, although it was but a wooden one”. The case was dismissed on the leg being restored to its owner.

The local press reported in 1847 that Ellen Woollams – described as a young “nymph du pave” – was fined for an assault on Mrs. Mountford of the Foaming Quart. Some jugs and glasses had been broken at the same time.

Yorkshireman Andrew Allen (“Licensed Victualler”) appears in the 1871 Census as landlord of the Foaming Quart at 87, High Street. Allen appeared before the Newcastle (County) magistrates in 1871 for trespassing in pursuit of game on land near Bradwell Wood, which was part of the estate of the Reverend Walter Sneyd. He was spotted shooting a partridge by gamekeeper Charles Hopwood, and although he prouduced a game licence, it was proved that he had no right to be on this land. Magistrate T. F. Twemlow concluded that poaching was inappropriate for a man in Allen’s respectable position, and was fined the full penalty of 40s.

The old thatched pub was demolished around 1925 and was subsequently rebuilt a little further from Liverpool (now Westport) Road. The Foaming Quart had been closed for a few years and stood derelict, before it was demolished in May, 2005.