The Bull Inn, Bethesda

button-theme-crimeThe Bull Inn, Bethesda

bethesda_high_street_bull_innThis inn has stood here from at least 1862 and some dramatic events have occurred within its walls. In the old postcard (right), the Bull Inn is on the right.

In March 1862, newspapers reported the sensational details of landlord Richard Hughes’ death in the building. It was immediately assumed that his wife had poisoned him. His wife had run off to America with a quarryman but returned and he took her back. He was described as “a fuddling good-hearted fellow” but their servant testified that “when he was in drink” he used to threaten his wife.

Mrs Hughes betrayed him once more, this time with a man called John Ellis. Richard, who was tall and “enjoyed a local reputation as a pugilist” contemplated attacking John Ellis. On the night of 27 February, Richard went to his room and his wife, alerted by noises, called for help. The doctor found him “in a state of total insensibility”. Despite having his stomach pumped, he could not be saved and it was clear to all that “maddened with jealousy and rage” he had taken an overdose of laudanum and killed himself.

In the 1870s, Thomas Griffith, his wife Ann and their children moved in. Thomas was a “car driver”, providing a horse-drawn taxi service. Ann’s father and brother were also car drivers and between them all trouble often flared at the inn! Ann’s brother assaulted a customer, her father was drunk and disorderly and in November 1879 Thomas was charged with being drunk on the premises, assaulting a police officer, and leaving his omnibus unattended outside the Royal George Inn, Bangor, while he went for a glass of beer!

After 1880 Thomas disappeared and Ann remarried, or did she? She remained at the pub with her new husband, John Davies, but her marriage certificate states that she was a spinster. This suggests that, although she had called herself Mrs Griffith, she and Thomas had never actually married!

With thanks to Dr Hazel Pierce, of The History House

Postcode: LL57 3AR    View Location Map

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