Courtesy Ian Evans 2004:

"A large T-shaped building, originally built in the late 1600’s and much altered during Victorian times, the Peacock stands in the centre of the village at the join of the Market Place and High Street. At its height, The Peacock was one of the busiest pubs in Donington with sometimes up to four rooms full of customers selling between 550 and 600 pints over Friday and Saturday nights. Perhaps the most famous of all of its landlords was its last, Mr Fred Lambert, whose family had been in the licenced trade in the village for nearly a century. Mr Lambert, who was landlord for 37 years, said he specialised in good beer and good company. He was also the proud owner of the largest collection of smoking pipes in the country, having pipes of all shapes and sizes, from as far away as China and Africa, and all of them on display fixed to the walls of the bar. Behind the pub, past the entrance to the tap room, in where many a Donington young lad tasted his first pint, is a long yard, where for many years three wooden caravans were parked. The first was a green painted steam engine living van, like the one used by Fred Dibnah; this was occupied by Mr Aby Hill who had worked with steam all his life. At the bottom of the yard were two small brightly painted showman’s caravans belonging to ‘Bogey’ Barwick, a Fair Hawker, who always set up his swinging boats and coconut shy at Donington Fair. Also, for a few years in the late 1940’s and early l950’s, in the yard stood Ray Mann’s fish and chip shop, a small wooden hut, open two or three nights a week ready to serve the hungry drinkers as they left the pub. Again, it was what the brewery described as ‘economics’ which finally closed the Peacock in February 1971. For a while it operated as a guest house until the 1990’s when it became a private house."

1851 Census - Joseph Thorlby, Inn Keeper

1861 Census - Joseph Thorlby, Inn Keeper