Air Balloon Pub A417 Gloucestershire

The tale of this well loved pub in the Cotswolds, and its demolition to make way for the A417 missing link dual carriageway.

[@MusaA]

How sad, but alas, goodbye Air Balloon, you was a welcoming sight for a Londoners eye! I have been a regular visitor to Gloucester for the past 15 years and driving past the Air Balloon pub was always a welcoming sight for me because it signified the ending of my journey. I always wondered what it would be like to sit in their for a Sunday lunch as I read somewhere that the food was quite good. I wish I did now as I am quite nostalgic about beautiful buildings once they have disappeared from the landscape!

[@willhemmings]

Nothing lasts forever, they say, but this pub was a landmark and deserved its place up there. Well done for making this record. I hope that somebody salvaged the pub sign

[@gloucestershire_kate]

Thank you, the sign was removed so hopefully will reappear at some point- somewhere! The outside picnic tables went to ‘Rubys’ a local independent bar in Birdlip.

[@christopherbentley7289]

I was one of the diggers at Crickley Hill just after I'd left the Sixth Form at Belper High School in the summer of 1979, returning the next year, lodging at the likewise demolished Ullenwood Civil Defence Centre, so the Air Balloon was one of the first places I visited at which I could legally consume alcoholic liquor - turning eighteen in July 1979 - which I would do on the long summer's evenings after a hard day's digging and an evening meal at the Civil Defence Centre, usually sat out in the Beer Garden so I may drop in Rubys when I'm on a mini-break this coming early July with my older brother as a sixty-third birthday treat, coinciding with the Diggers' Reunion on Crickley Hill, staying at the Royal George Hotel in Birdlip, so I could sit at those tables once again. From 2011 to 2019, with a rather failed return in 2021, I went to the reunions and I would usually walk down through the woods to the Air Balloon for old time's sake before continuing my walk back into Cheltenham, so I'm very glad I did so before it was demolished! Thanks for this video, Kate and for that information on the picnic tables....and also the historical background.

[@Cowman9791]

That is truly shocking to see that allowed to happen. For a building built in the 18th century like that, and having been a major landmark, it is shocking that the building wasn't listed, and that they were even legally allowed to demolish it.

[@HendinghamBlaides]

Spent many an hour in here over the decades. Sad to see it go, but the Missing Link has been desperately needed for decades also.... Shame it could not have been saved in some way

[@carollongden2369]

Happy memories of Sunday walks from dog lane, then cider at the air balloon

[@MusaA]

Maybe now you can adventure somewhat further and enjoy your Cider at Rosie's instead! 😀

[@user-qu3xd1yn9i]

great shame. lovely pub it was.

[@peterandhiscat]

Very nicely made video!

[@gloucestershire_kate]

Thank you Peter

[@chokoholmes9177]

What a shame. Had some lovely meals and pints on the way to the M5 and home. 😢

[@petermorris3665]

Driven past it a thousand times, usually at a snails pace, but time moves on and the new improved road is definitely needed.

[@timsimpkins1719]

I used to deliver food there until April 2022 I always thought it was a listed building ? Obviously not

[@WindmillsOfTheMind]

The people who demolish buildings like this, don't care about the 'listed' registration.

[@simonrose8700]

It was but only the original part it. It had been altered so many times over the centuries only a very small part of it was original. Which they decided wasn't justified in keeping it.

[@WindmillsOfTheMind]

@@simonrose8700 It's still removing a part of British history - remember the first balloon launching of the launching of a hydrogen balloon by Edward Jenner on 2 September 1784 (when the pub was built). It flew from Berkeley Castle to Kingscote and then on to a field near Birdlip. Historic achievement. But now, it's probably going to be another road or a load of houses. Given they said it's 'dangerous' around that bend, they might just make it a road. Flatten all that's around there, cut all the trees down (remarkable as they keep trying to get us to plant them all the time... maybe to compensate for all the trees they cut down for all the building they're doing all over the country). Anyhow, it's sad. And deeds like this are slowly destroying our history.

[@MusaA]

Buildings are only listed until the money is right enough to make them unlisted I'm afraid!

[@martynhillier6500]

@@WindmillsOfTheMind Most of the building dated from a rebuild in the 1960's & again in the late 1980's. It was mostly breeze block & MDF. It wasn't listed for a reason.

[@mikefoster2565]

Surely the planners got the road scheme wrong. Could have taken the duel carriageway half a mile away and kept this pub as part of a services area.

[@alfakilo-k9d]

Such a shame they weren't just made to move it a bit away from the new road. Bloody vandals, DfT!

[@martynhillier6500]

Why ? Pubs are shutting left right & centre. Most of the people bemoaning it's loss only ever drove past it, but didn't call in.

[@MusaA]

@@martynhillier6500 You don't have to go inside to appreciate a buildings appearance!

[@martynhillier6500]

@@MusaA But people driving by doesn't pay the bills. And most of the pub in it's last incarnation dated from a rebuild in th 1960's,& again in the late 1990's. That's why it wasn't listed.

[@petersavage5885]

Yeah, who needs historical old pubs. It's more roads and cars is what we really need on our small island.....🫤

[@simonrobbins9016]

Most of it couldn’t manage 60 years old, the narrative misses the rebuilds and the extensions in the1990’s