Home > Lincolnshire > Market Rasen > Kings Head Kings Head
Date of photo: c1960	Click above photo to expand	Picture source: Hania Franek
The Kings Head was situated at 52 Queen Street. Originally an ale house, the building is grade-II listed. In 2006 the pub’s name was changed to The Goldmine. It closed 6 months later and was unused for many years until in 2014 it was renovated and converted into premises for small businesses.
In the mid-seventies while we lived in Scunthorpe, my grandmother lived in Market Rasen. Once, when I was just old enough to drink, I took along a friend when my mother drove us there to visit and the two of us wandered down the high street for a drink. Just by the railway bridge, the first pub that we encountered was the (now converted to offices) King's Head, so we headed inside and looked up and down the bar. There was nothing that we recognised, so we asked for pints of bitter. What we received was a revelation; good aroma and flavour and none of the metallic tang or fizz that we had come to expect. This was our first experience of what we later discovered was real ale, unfiltered and conditioned in the cask. The beer was Barnsley Bitter, just a few months before the brewery was shut down and this fine beer replaced with fizzy John Smith's. When we next went to our regular haunts in Scunthorpe, we started looking for more traditional beers and switched from Double Diamond to Tetley's in the Chancel, from Sam Smith's Sovereign to Old Brewery Bitter in the Sherpa and from North Country Bitter (keg) to Hull Brewery Bitter in the Black Beauty, all of these at the time being cask ales served via electric pumps. It also gave us a desire to seek out more pubs serving traditional cask beer, mostly sending us in the direction of Brigg or Messingham as it was pretty scarce in Scunthorpe, one exception being the Talbot with its handpulled, Tadcaster-brewed Bass Brew Ten.
Paul Dixey (November 2017)
Listed building details:
Early 19C. Stuccoed with modern tiled roof. Ground floor rusticated with 3 early 19C shopfronts, one including blocked doorway, wooden pilasters either side and entablature above. 3 round headed windows with modern glass to each shop. Doorway with fanlight and licensing board above. Squashed arch carriage opening to one side. Above 4 windows, sash, 16 lights, with stucco pilaster surrounds. Centrally placed panel containing sign painting.
Do you have any anecdotes, historical information, updates or photos of this pub? Become a contributor by submitting them here. Like this site? Follow us on Make email contact with other ex-customers and landlords of this pub by adding your details to this page.
Other Photos
© Copyright Richard Croft and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence