The Old Eldon Hostel

[scratch]

Mick Durdeys rowing boat stolen from the garden's after a good night and rowed down the wye to the back of the hostel moved in the early hours to some garden in Harpur Hill.
Coming to AGM dinner with starter of a bottle of rum followed by a another bottle a submariner who broke into the hostel when locked out by removing slates from the roof.

 

[bob dearman]

Hi Teapot, you're too late. A history of the EPC and the Eldon Hostel has already been written but it's not available. The story goes like this. A young lad turned up who was a junior reporter on, I think, the Louth Weekly rag with the mandate to write an article on an extreme group for his indentures. He chose well, the notorious EPC and subsequently attained the nickname of "Scoop". After months of research and interviewing the resident oddballs he presented the article to George Cooper for apraisal and comment. George read it carefully and realised that the whole club would be incarcerated for fifteen yearsif it ever reached publication. In front of Scoop he ripped it up and chucked it on the fire. Ah, halcyon days.

 

[T pot 2]

Written, destroyed in a fire, unpublished.

Ergo no original is in existence!

15 years in the 70s would now be a 6months bound over sentence.
I'll take my chances. 😉

 

[Dickie]

The late night drinking hole next to the hostel was The Barbecue and pretended to be a nightclub. Apparently, you even had to pay to get in but regulars (ahem!) got in for free past the obese "security", a taxi driver called Tiny.
One night we were in there and Bob Toogood and Jeff Morgan turned up with Chris Bonington and Nick Estcourt, who they had acquired at the Moon in Stoney.  Bonington got so shit-faced that we had to dial the phone for him to tell his missus he wasn't going to be home that night.

The hostel was literally next door to the Barbecue, so one night we all sat against the back wall, while Mouse climbed out of the hostel window, traversed along the stone wall and knocked on the window. Being good mates, we actually let him in, with the management being none the wiser!

 

[Graigwen]

Could someone remind me of the name of the nearby pub, on the street with shops, was it the Three Tuns or something like that? It had a television and would show Match of the Day at closing time on Saturdays.

.

 

[T pot 2]

No three tunns

However there were in buxton at that time

The forresters
The Devonshire arms
The bulls head
The Prince of Wales
The ashwood arms
The railway hotel
The white lion
The Milton's head
The Hardwick hotel
The barbecue gentleman's club
Pebbles night club
The Grove hotel
The old hall
The George Hotel
Chequers night club
Tne new inn
The kings head
The eagle
The sun inn
The Swan inn
The cheese
The London road
The bakers arms
The Manchester Arms now the blazing rag
The robin
Haddon Hall public bar
The Duke of york
The parks inn

There was also a conservative club
A Liberal club
A working men's club
British legion club

and leaving buxton towards bakewell a further
Devonshire arms

If I remember right the epc were banned from each one at some time or another.

The three tunns was possibly the hardwivk hotel

 

[Barny]

If you can remember all that you couldn't have......... "forgotten what I was going to say"

 

[Graigwen]

Thanks T pot 2 for that gallant effort. My deficient memory does not recognise any of the names.

As I faintly recall it, the pub was embedded in a row of shops. I don't think it can have been on a corner site. It was certainly neither a nightclub nor a private club. It certainly sold Double Diamond beer brewed by Ind Coope but widely distributed nationally at that time (1967). If it had more than one bar, we were in the public bar, no carpets or anything fancy like that. As you went in the bar was along the left hand side and the TV at the far end. I don't think it can have been more than a hundred yards from the Eldon place.

I was hoping Mrs Trellis would remember, as he led me there that day and it was obviously a place he had patronised before.

I do remember the cafe and the school girls. I don't know where the two girls spent the night but they would have been welcome to join us although we would only have been interested in their warm Afghan fur coats. By 6.30am we cavers and the school girls were independently wandering the streets of Buxton looking for an open cafe to get warm in, ending up in the same one drinking tea very slowly. It was unbelievably cold. If only we had got more alcohol inside us, but arriving at the pub a few minutes before it closed was in keeping with the organisation of the rest of the weekend. Mrs Trellis had recruited a non caver to drive us from Aberystwyth to Buxton in a totally unroadworthy A35 van, with the promise of an interesting trip at the end. Apart from two who came by motobike the other nine were in the A35 van. The poor driver was a claustrophobe.  He managed P8 in flood without saying a word, but when we reached the surface he broke down with uncontrollable shaking and turned a kind of green colour. He never caved again.

.

 

[Mrs Trellis]

Fairly sure the pub is now called Milton's Head. What it was called back then I can't recall.

Sorry to be late on this thread.

 

[Graigwen]

Fairly sure the pub is now called Milton's Head. What it was called back then I can't recall.

Sorry to be late on this thread.

Thanks Glyn,

The Miltons Head was on the list provided by T Pot2 of Buxton Pubs in 1967, but when I found a photo of it, it looked too nice and too low. However I think you are right, and I found a photo of it in the 1930s when it was already called the Miltin's Head. I might be able to find some info from a few years later which might help confirm this.

I will post an image of the original document giving rise to this problem, when I can find the damn thing again.

By the way, I heard recently from Mike Harris. he is still going underground and found fairy rings under his floorboards in the Antipodes. 

.

 

[T pot 2]

Craigwen
When you entered the Milton on the left was the tap room, here the bar was on thr right with the tv up in the left corner of the ceiling. Continue forward on the right was the snug, no tv. Forward again and slightly left was the back bar, on entering the bar was in front of you with the tv in the far right in the corner of the room at ceiling height.

 

[Wardy]

Quite amazing how little you remember of the Milton arms T-Pot, presumably you didn't like the place and spent little time there!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Graigwen]

Craigwen
When you entered the Milton on the left was the tap room, here the bar was on thr right with the tv up in the left corner of the ceiling. Continue forward on the right was the snug, no tv. Forward again and slightly left was the back bar, on entering the bar was in front of you with the tv in the far right in the corner of the room at ceiling height.

Yes, I think it was certainly the Milton's Head. I guess we were in the tap room, I know of only one bar - we were only in there for a few minutes in October 1967. I guess I have reversed left and right in my memory. The TV was indeed high up in the corner of the ceiling, "Match of the Day" was well advanced when we arrived.

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