As a child, I loved my occasional visits to Stourport in the 1970s/80s, especially sitting in the terraced gardens outside the Tontine Hotel on a Sunday afternoon, watching the boats on the river. At the time, I had no idea that I had any ancestors called BALDWIN, nor that they had any connection with the town, let alone the hotel itself!
The Tontine is a grade II*-listed building, and was built c. 1772 by the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal Company as a showpiece development to attract wealthy visitors and businessmen. It was the first canal company hotel to be built in England. It was occupied by 1773, soon after the canal opened. The rear of the building looks over Stourport’s Middle Basin, whilst the front overlooks the River Severn.
The Tontine Hotel was described in an article in the County Express in 1890 as a “popular Hostelry so pleasantly and interestingly situated, facing the River Severn and entrance to the spacious Docks and Basin, also the pleasure boat stations close to the front.”
The hotel boasted a large Assembly Room on the first floor, capable of seating 200 people and accessed by a grand staircase from the main vestibule. The Assembly Room was available to let for Balls, Public Dinners, Meetings, Entertainments, Auction Sales etc.
A pub occupied the central part of the E-shaped building and was flanked by houses on either side. The houses were once used by canal merchants.
By 1890, the Tontine was said to be “now replete with accommodation for commercial gentlemen, families and visitors. Suites of apartments to let, per day, week, month or year…” The building included private houses in the three wings and the property as a whole was known as the Tontine Buildings.
The 1881 census listed the licensee of the Tontine Hotel as Esther Tyler, widow, and the heads of the households of the adjacent Tontine Buildings as a commercial traveller, an unemployed waterman, a brocklayer, a worsted weaver, two boatbuilders, a carpet weaver, and a ship wright.
The two boat builders were my great-great uncles, Thomas Baldwin (1849-1919) and James Baldwin (1839-1917).
71-year-old James Baldwin, boat builder, was still resident at 4 Tontine Buildings at the time of the 1911 census. The burial register of Lower Mitton parish church also gives Tontine Buildings as his address at the time of his death in 1917.
1970s remodelling plans
In 1971, Stourport Urban District Council’s Finance & General Purposes Committee said that the Tontine was falling into disrepair and becoming a fire hazard. It was said that the only means of escape from the building was a wooden staircase in the centre.
It seems that by this time, only the central public house was in use, with much of the rest of the building lying empty.
In 1977, owners Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries said that the 200-year-old pub was in need of repair, and they put forward a £217,000 modernisation scheme, which included a proposal to remodel the site and demolish ten adjoined terraced cottages, some of which had not been inhabited for years. The brewery maintained that the basic fabric of the wings was in a poor state and it was economically impossible to keep them as they were.
Stourport Civic Society opposed the plans to demolish the three wings, as did the Ancient Monuments Society and a number of other conservation bodies and canal societies.
A three-day public inquiry was held in August 1977 following Wyre Forest Council’s refusal of planning permission on the basis of the listed building’s prominence and character.
Government inspector, Mr John Jackson, was taken on a tour of the site and travelled on the “Ice Boat” along the canal basin and through a lock on the River Severn. The trip was arranged by the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal Society, who hoped that the visit would encourage the inspector to decide that the pub should be kept in its existing form.
Poet Sir John Betjeman added his support, writing a letter that was handed into the public inquiry. He said “I regard the Tontine Hotel as an irreplaceable Georgian building and a distinguishing feature of Stourport. I cannot believe that anyone today would be so retrogressive as to destroy this elegant Georgian building. Patch up and mend – do not destroy.”
In January 1978, it was announced that the brewery’s appeal had been dismissed following the public inquiry. The inspector’s report said “The condition of the main structure is not bad, having regard to its age.” He considered that the building’s defects were not beyond repair and that the proposed demolition would inevitably be detrimental to the appearance and character of the building and its setting in a conservation area. He said that the hotel was of particular historical interest, being one of the few remaining examples of a hotel built by a canal company.
In July 1978, revised plans for internal changes received planning permission. The brewery obtained permission to convert the one-roomed pub into a bar and lounge with no changes to the exterior.
By 1990, the local MP was reportedly saddened by the “sorry state” of the Tontine and was told by Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries that one of the reasons was the planning difficulties with Wyre Forest District Council. This was said to make refurbishment commercially unviable and punitatively expensive. The MP urged the brewery and the council to sit down together and negotiate a mutually acceptable resolution.
Owners Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries closed the pub in May 2001 and it was sold to a developer for conversion into flats. In August 2001 British Waterways said that it was in negotiations to purchase the building and return it to public use as part of a mixed use which could comprise a visitor centre, eatery and some flats.
It was announced in October 2001 that British Waterways had purchased the building. However, it failed to find a pub operator for the ground floor of the building and the Tontine was added to the Buildings At Risk Register.
Stourport Civic Society was invited to visit the Tontine in 2001 before any development works began. In November 2005, an archaeological dig took place in the Tontine Gardens.
British Waterways sold the premises to Raybone Developments in 2006 but retained the Tontine Gardens leading down to the river. The gardens were part of a £3.5million regeneration of Stourport Basins.
In 2007, a planning application was submitted to Wyre Forest District Council for the existing vacant building to be converted into eight town houses and six self-contained flats. Although contrary to the Council’s policy, it was felt that there was sufficient mitigation in terms of bringing such an important building back into use to allow the scheme. However, concerns about the lack of detail in the proposals led to a recommendation from officers for the application to be refused.
Renovations to convert the former Tontine Hotel into dwellings were finally completed in 2010.