One for the road...

PUBLIC houses, inns and other licensed premises have a long history of hospitality, offering refreshment to travellers and havens of good company.

- Stephen Guy

Thatched hostelries such as the Scotch Piper at Lydiate, and the Wheatsheaf in Raby, evoke the distant past.

The Victorian era saw huge growth in pubs, particularly in towns and cities, as populations boomed.

Over the years, licensed premises became tightly regulated to protect the quality and quantity of drink.

An 1874 guide declared: "An alehouse must be first licensed by the justices, before the keeper can sell excisable liquors consumed on the premises.

"The granting of the licence can be opposed by any inhabitant.

"The statute compels the keeper to keep unadulterated liquor, to use only legal measures, not to permit drunkenness or unlawful games or bad characters and keep good order.