Black Horse, Elm Road, Wisbech

History of the Black Horse

The Black Horse was opposite the residence of Dr Mason, famed for bone-setting. On the bricks around the back door of the Black Horse are numerous initials of the waiting patients of Dr Mason. In 1845 the landlord, John Spinks, was fined £2 10s for serving beer after 11am to patients waiting to see the doctor. This case provoked a lot of press interest.

1848 Edward Shacklock

1866 John Coulson

1873 George Scarnell

1897 Lavinia Sattele

1905 J W Coates

1910 George Edward Coates

1927 – 1950 Kenneth Coates

(source: The Inns and Taverns of Wisbech – a survey from the earliest times to 1950 by Arthur Artis Oldham, 1993)