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In 1825, the Iron Fort of Bhurtpore, in
northern India, was again becoming a serious thorn in the side of the
British. Bhurtpore was considered by
the Indians to be indestructible following previous failed
attempts by the otherwise all conquering British.
Lord Combermere
began his five year stint as Commander-in-Chief in India by
masterminding the siege of Bhurtpore which, in January 1826, finally assured
relative peace in the subcontinent for many years.
Twenty three years later, in 1849, the George family
finally arrived in Aston, renting the pub, by now known as the
Bhurtpore Inn, from the Combermere estate. They also had the field
behind the pub and a couple more fields in the locality, and managed
to make a living from a mix of agriculture, brewing and running the
village pub.
In 1865 Lord Combermere (whose distinguished
military career was defined by his achievement at Bhurtpore) passed
away and before long, decades of financial problems lead to annual
sales of estate property.
In 1895, Philip George, the third generation
of landlord,
bought the pub from the estate and set about a major programme of
improvements, costing around £200. During this period the Bhurtpore
was described in county records as the best run pub in the area.
In 1901 the business was sold to Woolf's
Brewery of Crewe for around £2,000. Woolf's was taken over by
Allsopp's of Burton in 1923 which became part of Ind Coope and
eventually what is now called Carlsberg Tetley, to whom the pub was
still tied in 1991.
In that year, after several years in the
trade, Simon and Nicky George were looking to buy their first pub
and the boarded up, stripped out Bhurtpore ticked just about every
box.
Five months of rebuilding, repairing and
refitting later, the Bhurtpore reopened for business on April 9th,
1992 - the same day that John Major's Government was re-elected,
much to Neil Kinnock's surprise.
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