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The Wheatsheaf was situated on Tamworth Road (formerly Sawley Road). The publican in 1899 was William Kilbey.

This pub has now reopened as the Stumble Inn.

Alan Winfield (January 2011).

During the Second World War, the Wheatsheaf pub in Long Eaton acted as an unofficial local contact point for the families of servicemen posted overseas. The pub was one of very few places that actually had a telephone, and of course very few people had a telephone in their own homes in those days. My father was overseas with the RAF in the Far East for two years, having been posted away there only 6 weeks after getting married at the young age of 20. My mother was only 18, and virtually every evening she would go with her mother (my grandma) to The Wheatsheaf to see if there were any messages. One evening the telephone rang, and it was for my mother. On the other end of the telephone it was my dad. My mother shouted with excitement “Where are you?” and he replied “Derby station”! Imagine the shock and excitement after being apart for two years, and having no idea when they would be reunited again. Apart from a few letters that took several weeks to get to their destination, my parents were like many other families separated by war and by huge distances, with no real idea of how the other was doing. The local pub, The Wheatsheaf probably never had such grateful customers. That was back in 1943. They went on to be married for 68 years! My dad passed away aged 90, and my mum died 6 months later aged 87.

David Briggs (August 2014)

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