A Nottinghamshire Pub
The Plough Inn
Samuel Hieronymus Grimm, 1792
The Old Plough Inn, Egmanton
Closed, 2011
By Ralph Lloyd-Jones
Samuel Grimm (1733 - 1794) was a Swiss artist who worked for the Rector of Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Richard Kaye (1736 - 1809), drawing many pictures in the county in the second half of the 18th Century. The collection is now in the British Library, but can be accessed and seen in detail at www.bl.uk/onlinegallery.
On a trip north in 1792, Grimm made the picture shown, previously only identified as 'The Plough Inn, Sherwood Forest'. (Note the actual plough hanging up by way of an inn sign).
This is clearly The Old Plough Inn at Egmanton which has recently ceased trading and faces an uncertain future. That has been the fate of thousands of public houses, many of them historic, which have closed down during the last few years.
When Grimm drew his picture The Plough had most likely already been in business for at least a hundred years. It survived for over two centuries more, only to perish recently.