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The Laburnum Inn was situated on Sleetmoor Lane and was originally built in 1804 as the Alfreton Poor House.

During the 17th century, the Alfreton Overseers accepted charitable bequests made by prominent people of the area in order alleviate the suffering of the poor. After interviewing a claimant, the Overseers would decide what help, if any, would be given. They had at this time the authority and power to remove poor people from the parish if they did not rightfully belong there. The cost of relief kept rising and disturbed by events, the Overseers decided to take advantage of the Poor Law Act of 1781. This entailed the building of a house “…for the reception of people who are and may be burthensome to this parish…”.

A special meeting was held at the George Inn, Alfreton on 11 February 1801, where it was agreed that a Poor House be built to house the poor and legally settled people of the parish (those not legally settled would still be removed to their own parish). In consequence, the Alfreton Poor House was built in 1804 on Sleetmoor Common. The site of the Poor House is near to the modern road junction with Bloomfield Road.

After the closure of the Poor House, the building was sold into private ownership and was purchased by the Palmer-Morewood  family of Alfreton Hall. It was converted into cottages and a public house. A license application by Askew Ball was reported in the Derbyshire Courier on 14 September 1867, when it was stated that the building had been used for a beer-house for the previous 23 years, giving a date for the closure and sale of the workhouse as 1844. At the time of the license application the name of the public house was recorded as the “Old Workhouse Inn”, although at some point it became known as “The Laburnum”. A report in the Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald of 3 October 1896 records that Askew Ball was the licensee at the time, and had therefore been at the Laburnum for some 19 years. The inn was given the name of the “Laburnum Tree Inn” in the report, which referred to a request by Mr. Askew to add to the premises by creating a doorway through to an adjoining cottage, which he and his family would use as their private dwelling. The application was granted. 

In 1896, Charles Rowland Palmer-Morewood consigned eight public houses to auction, including the Laburnum, which was described in the auction document as a beer-house. The premises consisted of three bedrooms on a second floor, three bedrooms on the first floor and on the ground floor a bar, smoke-room, tap-room, pantry, small sitting-room, a living-room and further pantry and one other room with an attic over. There was also a beer cellar. Outside was a wash house, Coal store, outside toilet and ashpit (listed as a privy in the document), coach house and cow-house. Despite the extensive size of the property it was likely that nothing had been done to improve the building since it had been converted to a public house. The premises were sold to John Smith’s Tadcaster Brewery for the sum of £1,550.

Trade at this Inn was seasonal. Although it stood alone on Sleetmoor Lane, it was, at one time, a popular meeting place for local people. The building itself, however, was never refurbished or brought up to more modern standards. In his Annual Report for the year 1957, Mr. E Mercer, the Chief Public Health Inspector for the Alfreton Urban District stated: “At the request of the Superintendent of Police I made an inspection of the living quarters and business premises at the above premises. This building, which was erected as a Workhouse in the year 1801, continued to be used as such until sometime in the 1860s when a part of the building became the Laburnum Inn and the remainder of the building four back-to-back cottages. It was found that the living accommodation was most dilapidated and unsatisfactory, part being totally unfit for human habitation and the business premises totally unsuitable for the purpose and incapable of improvement at a reasonable cost. A detailed report was made and a schedule of dilapidations sent to the Brewery Company for their observations. On 30th December [1957] I reported to the committee that the Brewery Company were still considering the matter and would contact me early in the new year.”

The Laburnum Inn is to the right of the building in the photograph, with the cottage on the left.

In February 1958 the Inspector was requested to appear at the Brewster Sessions before the Licencing Justices to give evidence prior to their decision on whether or not to withdraw the Laburnum’s licence. The matter was deferred and was subsequently referred to the Compensation Court at Derby in the July of that year. After due consideration the licence was withdrawn and the beer-house closed at the end of 1958. The Inspector’s Annual Report for that year gave some detail on the history of the building: “The Inn actually forms part of the old Workhouse built in 1801 on ‘Sleightmoor’ as it was formerly known. The building is shown on the Inclosure Map and included in the records of that survey dated 8th January 1824 by William Chrishop of Mansfield. Some time in the early 1860s [this should actually read ‘the 1840s’] the south wing became the Laburnum Inn and the rest of the building was converted into five back-to-back cottages. It is the intention of the council to take early action to re-house the tenants of the property as a whole and to clear the site. On Completion, a familiar landmark will disappear, and with it may we hope the use of the word ‘workhouse’ which has such an unpleasant association with the ‘bad old days’”

The Laburnum Inn remained closed and derelict for some time. The building was listed in the 1964 Annual Report for the Urban District Council under an Individual Demolition Order and was finally demolished in January that year, after standing for 160 years.