Castle Tavern Doxey Road

A Memory of Stafford.

I was born in Doxey, about one mile from Stafford town centre. My forebears lived in and around what was then called Castletown, that is the area on the left of Doxey Road. My maternal grandmother Alice Parsons was the keeper, with her husband Harry, of the Castle Tavern which has a prominent position on the corner of Castle Street. They took the inn in about 1902 and continued until Harry's death in 1910. Alice kept the inn going by herself for a few years. The inn is a very different place now from what it must have been in Alice's time. It was then an inn which served mainly the needs of the workforce of the railway. Castle Street led at that time to Bagnall's railway engine works. Whilst at the inn Alice fell down the cellar steps and broke both her wrists. On a recent visit I was taken down into the cellar by the landlord and one can easily see how tha accident happened. She was a very tough lady and lived on in Doxey until she was 99 years old.

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