Summary
Perched just above Nailsworth on the A46 approach from the south, the Tipputs Inn – historically a staging post between Cheltenham and Bath that dates back to 1769 – has been closed and awaiting an upgrade since March 2025.
Details
But amid fears for the pub’s future and a potential change of use after it recently changed hands, a move has been agreed to renew protection on what happens to the landmark drinking spot by ensuring locals have a chance to put in a bid for its preservation as a pub.
Stroud District Council has been asked to approve awarding the address the status of an Asset of Community Value (ACV), after Marianne Simpson, clerk of Horsley Parish Council , lodged the formal request, given that the pub’s specific location of Tiltups End places it just inside the parish. Amid struggles to keep it as a viable business, the address has been the focus of controversy for several years.
Back in 2020, an initial ACV was granted in the wake of a failed bid, five years previously, from nearby Riskin Mill College, to convert the address to educational facilities, a training cafe and an organic shop. At that time, the parish told Ebley Mill: “Over the years, it has been used to hold regular jazz and folk evenings which have attracted customers from near and far.
It has held fundraising events for the whole village and plays a central role in village life.
It sits in a prominent position on the landscape and has a large car park, which is an excellent starting point for walkers to access the many footpaths which take in the beautiful surrounding views.” For the renewal of the protection, Ms Simpson told planners that “current primary use of the building furthers the social well-being or social interests of the local community; a social benefit due to the fact that the Tipputs Inn at Tiltups End serves the whole of Horsley parish.” She added: “Horsley consists of 16 disparate hamlets and outliers and the Tipputts Inn is a valuable social hub connecting all the hamlets and the village centre residents.” Up to the 1970s, planners were told that the pub was used by the many agricultural workers in the community and for passing trade, changing its name from the Black Horse to Tipputs Inn in the latter part of that decade.
Explaining the renewal request, Kate Kay, chair of Horsley Parish Council , said the property was now in the hands of Ruskin Mill. She said: “For whatever reasons, it has been diffucult to run as a pub despite the efforts of the owners of the Britannia in Nailsworth and the Ram in Woodchester.
As it the case for sadly so many pubs, it is hard, but if it ever comes up for sale, this gives people the opportunity to have first say with a bid, in a process just as we have seen play out in Nympsfield with the Rose an Crown.
Report source: Punchline Gloucester
