In the 1780s the White Lion was used for meetings about the construction of a bridge to replace the Sawley ferry. It was also used in 1787 to display and discuss proposals for the Sawley Enclosure Act.
The White Lion has always been used for meetings, inquests, clubs etc. For example, in the 1880s it hosted the annual dinner of the Long Eaton Detachment of the 1st Volunteer Battalion, Derbyshire Regiment (a forerunner of 3rd (Volunteer) Battalion, Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters, which some Sawley men served in a hundred years later).
The first landlord’s name we know of is a Mr Shaw in 1801. Robert Shaw (either the same man, or his son) was there in the late 1820s and again in the early 1930s. In 1841 Elizabeth Austen was in charge, but around 1850 Gaetano Amabilino took over, after he left the Nags Head. A few years later Gaetano moved to London and James Allen took over. When it was sold in 1859, James moved to the New Inn.
He was followed at the White Lion by George Smith and then James Brown. In 1884 Smith was summoned for selling watered-down whisky and fined 20/ and costs.
In 1891 Maria Anne Wilkins (who had been at the Nags Head) took over for a few months, before handing over to Arthur Maycock. By 1901 Henry Bonser (who had run the Nags in the 1880s) was the landlord.
John Truzzell was the landlord for a couple of years in the early 1900s before moving to the Old Bell (The ‘Top House’) in Long Eaton marketplace.
In 1904, whilst the tenant was a Mr Shepherd, permission was granted to set up a bowling green on some adjacent land.
By 1908 the tenant was Hannah (or Anna) Holmes. Her son, Albert Ernest Holmes, was killed in France in 1918.
In the early 1920s the landlord was Joe Ballard then, from around 1922 to 1927 it was Joseph Roper. He’d been working in the family lace business and was a keen local cricket and football player. In 1927 the licence was transferred to Herbert Whieldon.
Around 1929 John ‘Jack’ Turner took over. He’d been born in Sawley and had spent 26 years in the Derbyshire Constabulary before becoming a landlord. On retirement in 1941 he moved to ‘Kosy Kot’ (No 9) Shaftesbury Avenue.
He was apparently a very jolly character and, although looking quite fit in this 1936 photograph outside the White Lion, he weighed 25 stone when he died in 1951.
His younger daughter, Catherine Anne, married James Patrick Mannion (1907-1967), the eldest son of James Mannion, an Irish plasterer who became a Long Eaton District councillor. One of the Mannion daughters married the same day in the same church (St Francis of Assisi Catholic Church). James junior (who’d been born in New York!) built many of the houses in Sawley in the 1930s and 40s. Mannion Crescent (at the end of Victoria St) is named after him. He and Catherine lived at the pub for a while before moving to 28 Shaftesbury Avenue in the late 1930s.
The next tenants were Walter and Kate Giles. Their son, Ronald, was a Nottinghamshire County cricketer and served with the Sherwood Foresters in North Africa and Anzio.
The next landlord was John Kingsley, until his death in 1944. He was replaced by Jesse and Katie Beck, who’d been running the Alvaston Hotel. After Jessie died in 1949, Katie kept the licence in her name. She married Ernest Hartle in 1955 and handed the White Lion over in 1957 to Doris Milward, who was followed by William Jackson.
In the 1960s, through to 1976 it was Ted and Dot Smith.
From 1977 to 1982 it was Tony & Diane Machin. Tony was from Sandiacre and had worked at Castle Donington power station. Diane was from Long Eaton. They’d previously run a small pub in Melbourne. After 5 years in Sawley they moved to another pub in Waddington, near Lincoln.
The Machins were succeeded by John & Judy Cooper. They were also local, having previously lived on Wensleydale Road (behind the Wilsthorpe Tavern). John used to work at Plessey and had been a customer at the White Lion.
In the early 1990s the tenants were Walter and Sandra James.
In the early 2010s a friend of the owner started brewing beer in the upstairs function room. Around 2013/14 the ‘Old Sawley Brewing Company’ moved to a specially built micro-brewery in the old stables. The brewery closed in 2024.