Mason Moore | Hinckley Reporter | 24 May 2020
PUBS play a big part in the community aspect of an area locally, they can be used for a cheeky cheap drink and a chat, enjoying pub grub whilst watching sporting events, or a meeting place for residents to get to socialise.
The village of Higham on the Hill, located in between the market towns of Nuneaton and Hinckley, is sadly no longer home to any pubs in the area, but they were before.
The Oddfellows Arms
The Oddfellows Arms is believed to be the oldest pub in the village as the building was originally constructed in 1791. The building started operating as a public house for the first time in 1874.
‘The Oddies’, as it was most commonly known locally, stopped trading in 2018 where it closed its doors to its patrons, and it has sat untouched ever since.
Back in October 2019, Elmesthorpe Brewery Founder, Nirad Solanki, mentioned to the Hinckley Free Press that he was unsuccessful in his attempt to purchase the pub.
In February 2020, plans were discussed to demolish The Oddies building to make way for more homes in the village.
However, in April 2020, it was announced by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Councillor, Jonathan Collett, that the demolition plans have been withdrawn.
A group of residents in Higham on the Hill are campaigning to transform the once pub building into a community building.
Currently, the future of The Oddfellows Arms is up in the air and the building is still standing, but heavily protected with gates and security panels across all doors and windows.
The Fox Inn
The Fox Inn was a pub located near the Higham on the Hill Church of England Primary school and the local church.
The pub stopped operating as a public house back in 2012 when planning permission was submitted and successfully granted for one new dwelling and to become a house.
The former drinking hole has now been fully converted to a single residential property on private property, and little to no signs of its past life of a pub exist.
The Barley Sheaf Inn
It would prove a rather difficult challenge for anybody to find the site that used to be home to The Barley Sheaf Inn, if they didn’t have a helping hand in the case.
The image of the Inn which we were worked off to pinpoint and determine the accurate location, thanks to The Hinckley District Past and Present team, was dated all the way back to 1905 in black and white with no recognisable landmarks or points of interest in the photograph.
The reason that this is so challenging to find is because the Inn in question has been since been demolished and no trace of it ever exists of it in the modern day.
The former site of the Inn was demolished so that a full and complete row of houses could be built opposite the primary school in the village.
Very Interesting. Shame the village has no pub at all now. I had some really good sing-a-long nights in the Fox in the 1970’s
There are several images of the Barley Sheaf Inn in the publication ‘Higham-on-the-Hill – Around the Village with Gordon Taylor which was compiled by Celia Hornbuckle. The loclation was on the corner of Main Street and Barr Lane.
Where can I get a copy of that book?
I remember the building from my childhood.as val says it was on the corner of Main Street and Barr lane with the entrance in Main Street.the Barr lane side was covered in ivy and I recall throwing stones into it to scare the birds that sat in it.wicked child!