In 1878 a committee was set up in Nantwich ‘to consider the establishment of a cocoa house or rooms as an alternative to the beerhouse’. At that time, there were about 45 inns, alehouses and beerhouses in the town. In Pillory Street there were nine! The Three Cups Cocoa House was opened on 26th of December 1878 in the former showrooms and workshop of Price & Wilding, formerly Groucott, Price & Wilding. This was on the west side of Pillory Street. The report of the opening ceremony takes a whole column in small print in the Nantwich Guardian of December 28th, 1878. The Rev. F.G. Blackburne was chairman of the company set up to create ‘The Three Cups’. Eight hundred and ninety two £l shares had been bought. He explained the new amenity was for the benefit of all classes. For one halfpenny you could buy a cup of cocoa or coffee, for one penny, a cup of tea or a bowl of soup. You could also read the newspapers. So this new type of service was rather like the London coffee house of long ago and something like the new Public Libraries since 1850, but then Nantwich did not have one. In 1992 Nantwich Civic Society protested about the state of the main building on Pillory Street. There were broken windows on three sides. It was feared rain would cause further that deterioration, pests would invade and the building would become a health hazard. A second developer rescued the Cocoa House in 1992/3 and two businesses began in 1993. Further restoration took place on the buildings in the yard. Three of these became businesses by the end of 1993. Living accommodation was also made available on the upper floors. Part of the yard forming the passage from Pillory Street to Hospital Street was paved, flower beds, lamp standards and litter bins provided. The tall chimney of the ‘one-time cooper’s kiln has been preserved to form a central feature – as does the large metal archway reading COCOA YARD over the entrance from Hospital Street. Now, at the present time, more development
