The former Cock Inn, Market Place, Leek

Description:When this picture was taken Micah Carding, a plumber, painter and glazier was occupying No.s 2 and 3 Market Street. Originally it was The Cock Inn, a popular coaching inn during the eighteenth century. Its most famous guest was John Naden, who spent his last night in the cellar before being hung, and gibbeted on Gun. Before the Leek Commissioners purchased the inn in 1864, with the idea of using the site for a new Town Hall and covered market, the building had been partly occupied earlier in the 1800s by a bank, and then turned into two shops, a doctors surgery, a blacksmith's shop, a cottage and several storerooms. The Commissioners never carried out their plans and the building was obviously let to various tenants until it was demolished and the Tourist Information Centre and council offices built in its place.