Nottingham's famous Old General statue rescued from charity shop and new owners have big plans

A piece of Nottingham history has been rescued and will be given a new lease of life thanks to Castle Rock Brewery. The 'Old General' statue used to take pride of place over the doorway of a pub with the same name in Hyson Green for more than a century until it closed and was redeveloped.

The statue, modelled on a local 18th-century eccentric, lay undiscovered for a decade until February 2024 when it was found rotting away in a wooden crate outside a charity shop next door to the former pub, on the corner of Radford Road and Bobbers Mill Road.

When Nottinghamshire Live visited the charity shop, we were told: "It's been here years. It's a rubbish statue, there's no detail to it. It was only the painting that made it look any good. It was very disappointing when they lowered it down on the crane. It's just a piece of concrete rubbish."

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However, Nottingham's Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) disagreed, claiming it was a piece of history worth preserving. They contacted Castle Rock to see if they could come to the rescue.

Five months on, the statue has been saved and is now cordoned off in the beer garden at the back of the Vat & Fiddle pub in Queensbridge Road. The forlorn-looking figure has flaking paintwork and is missing a hand but there are plans to give it a major facelift and carry on an old festive tradition and add some new ones too.

Moving the solid stone statue was no mean feat. Castle Rock's managing director Colin Wilde estimated it weighs around 300kg. He said: "Obviously we want to preserve it. It's a piece of Nottingham history.

"To start with we thought we'd send a brewery van and a couple of lads and we'll shove it on the back but it wasn't that easy. It was a bit harder to move than we thought so we paid for a crane hire. The paint will blow off in a strong wind, it's that flaky."

The plan is to find a local artist, who can strip it down and repaint it in matching colours, including a red Army jacket, yellow waistcoat and grey breeches. The revamped statue will be put on display with a plaque explaining the story of the Old General, who was born around 1779 and whose real name was Benjamin Mayo.

He earned the nickname as he marched children, pretending they were soldiers, around the old marketplace. No more than 4ft tall he was very round-shouldered and his legs were badly deformed, possibly due to suffering rickets as a child.

Mr Wilde said: "We are trying to come up with ideas for what we do with it when it is revamped for a suitable relaunch. We have fallen in love with the story behind it. He died in a workhouse, had a pub named after him and has a statue that's 140 years old that we're all very interested in."

He plans to resurrect the tradition where the statue was dressed up like Father Christmas in December, and start some new ones too like donning a Nottingham Forest and Notts County hat on the Old General on match days.

"The regulars have been quite intrigued by it. We even had one email that suggested we change the name of the pub to the Old General," said Mr Wilde. While that may be taking it a step too far, there could be a special beer brewed in his honour for the relaunch.

"What I have read about him he certainly seemed to like a laugh and a joke and trick and tease people, so I think it's about having fun with it. It's amazing the amount of interest. I did a telephone interview with the New York Times. They wanted the background to the quirkiness of it and wanted some fun stories about it."

CAMRA secretary Andrew Ludlow said it was member 'Todge' Green who first discovered the statue's whereabouts and Nick Molyneux, the pub preservation officer, who set the wheels in motion with Castle Rock.

He said: "I am delighted to think that having spent the last few years in a crate the statue of the Old General, Benjamin Mayo, is now back in a pub and restored to the Nottingham public."

Every Christmas for over a century the statue was dressed up as Santa Claus. Nottingham writer Steve Oliver, who grew up seeing it when he visited his grandparents, carried on the festive tradition even after the pub shut down.

After visiting the Old General at the Vat & Fiddle he said: "Although some people might be upset that it's no longer in Hyson Green, I'm glad someone cared enough to rescue the Old General. The other end of the city on display is better than being left to rot in storage"