Passing the Star Public house on Rochdale Road you will notice it is all boarded up, a sign maybe of the pub trade suffering in these times when people have to decide whether to put food on the table, clothe their children or put petrol in their cars, to have extra left over to spend on social entertainment is seen as being fortunate, when it comes to choice there’s only one winner really. It could also be seen that the stranglehold Pub Companies have on tenants is making more throw the towel in as they can only make a living by raising the prices at the bar in turn dissuading punters from going out. It now appears that Faye Bell, who was up until recently the sitting tenant at the Star, has had to quit the role after having no support form the owners, Enterprise Inns, in trying to take the business forward.

The Star opened at noon on 21st February 1958

The Star opened its doors at noon on Friday 21st February 1958 by the Lt-Cmdr G W Wells, Deputy Lieutenant of Lincolnshire. Built for the Hewitt Brothers Limited of Grimsby it cost £24,000 to build, the main contractors being Bernard Pumphrey Ltd of Scunthorpe and Gainsborough.

A rare event took place in Scunthorpe that day for the licence from one pub in the town was transferred to another. The Station Hotel which was opened in 1888 and stood at the corner of Brigg Road (now called Main Approach Road) and Alexander Road was closed on the 20th February 1958 and the licence transferred to The Star in Ashby along with the tenants Mr. and Mrs. Patterson who had spent the previous twelve years at the Station Hotel. It is believed to have been the first time in Scunthorpe that a licence had been removed from one public house to another. Could this event make it the longest continual alcohol licence in Scunthorpe, spanning 123 years, in the town even though the pub is only 53 years old?

               The Station Hotel which opened on 1888

Susan Wilcox from the owners, Enterprise Inns has said, “they are working with the EIP within the legal limitations to health and safety and the pub should reopen with in a few weeks if not sooner.”

When the pub celebrated its Silver Jubilee in 1983 the mine hosts were Richard and Barbara Bowers, the pub then being owned by Bass North Ltd. Previous landlords at the Star are listed as Fred Barnes, formerly from the Dolphin at Yaddlethorpe and Charlie Lees.

Today the Star is known as the Ashby Star, the slight name change is said to have come about after confusion over local footballing teams in the 1980s. To differentiate the team from the Star to another team in the league going by the similar name the team at the Star added Ashby to its name and the pub name itself has transcended to the same.

Disgruntled regulars of the pub have created a Facebook group which is called Friends of Ashby Star which is linked to  here