Haunting look around pub from the past before it is turned into shops and flats
THE FORMER PLOUGH INN HAS BEEN AN EYESORE FOR YEARS
A FORMER pub has opened its doors as it prepares for a massive facelift decades after it took last orders.
The former Plough Inn, in Horninglow Street, Burton, has been an eyesore for many years as it slowly crumbled into disrepair.
The Burton Mail was shown around the rear of the former pub which is currently closed off to the public. The ground floor is the only storey accessible and had been stripped back to the brickwork and concrete flooring.
Plans to turn the former pub into two flats were first approved in 2019, but work never started. However, Allister Gardiner, whose company AG Group is currently renovating the neighbouring Plough Maltings, is turning the striking building into apartments.
It was understood the buildings would be turned into a series of shops and flats. However, this may be subject to change in the future.
The Plough Inn was once used as a property to house employees from Bass brewery.
The Burton Mail previously spoke to visitors and residents of the Plough Inn who fondly remembered its “secret garden”.
The pub once featured in a wellknown photograph that appeared in the Burton Mail newspaper following the devastating floods of 1875.
The photograph, with the former Holy Trinity church in the background, showed a crowd of people huddled on the top of a carriage as it made its way through the floods caused by torrential rain.
Nowadays, the crumbling white pub building, at the end of a row of three derelict terraced properties in Horninglow Street, is in such a bad state of repair that a structural report previously recommended that it should be bulldozed.
A report to the borough council submitted alongside the latest application said: “The limited historical interest in the site has only looked at converting part of the site and proposed a large proportion to be demolished. With the site situated within a conservation area, we feel demolition would be detrimental to the existing character of these buildings and their immediate context.
“With the addition of a ground floor commercial space, there is an opportunity to serve the surrounding area as a local convenience store and create further employment opportunities.”