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Named after one of Nottingham’s lesser-known historical figures, the Herbert Kilpin on Bridlesmith Gate is now open. Herbert (1870 - 1916) was born in Nottingham. The son of a butcher, he lived on Mansfield Road with his nine older brothers.
The lacehouse assistant was a keen footballer, playing for a number of local sides, and ended up moving to Turin when offered a job opportunity to work for Edoardo Bosio in his textile business. Bosio also had roots with Nottingham lace, having cut his teeth at the Thomas Adams lace factory, and went on to found a football team, Internazionale Torino, where Herbert became the first Englishman to play for an Italian team.
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Herbert Kilpin (1870 - 1916)[/caption]
Kilpin moved to Milan in 1891, where he founded his own club: Milan Football and Cricket Club which was later renamed to the more catchy A.C Milan. The club was an immediate success, winning the national league in 1901 and boasting an illustrious reign in the top flight of football. They are now the third most successful club in the world in terms of number of international titles.
Kilpin died at the young age of 46 and was initially buried in the Municipal Cemetery in Milan. An amateur historian found his (nameless) grave in the nineties and in 1999, the club's centenary year, A.C. Milan paid for a new tombstone in the Monumental Graveyard. So Herbert now rests in the area reserved for the great and the good, sharing the ground with philosophers, politicians, composers and sculptors. Nice.
The new pub aims to be a place where Herbert would be proud to call his local, if the history books are correct he was partial to an alcohol beverage, alcoholism possibly being linked to his death. He’d probably drink any hipster under the table.
10 Bridlesmith Walk, Nottingham
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