The Red Cow Hotel was originally built sometime in the early 1600’s, then bought by Thomas Cowley when he arrived in Donington in 1680. Cowley died in 1721 and the hotel was taken over by the Cowley Trust which in 1752 had the building rebuilt into the style we know today at a cost of £390. In 1950 the Trust sold the Red Cow to Holes brewery of Newark and it was extensively refurbished when Mrs Kathleen Bossom took over as landlady in the mid l960’s. With its imposing frontage onto the High Street, the Red Cow was for many years Donington’s foremost public house but after several different owners it closed its doors for the last time in 2002. After standing derelict for several years it is understood that the building may now be converted into flats. The Red Cow Tap was joined onto the old stables at the bottom of the yard, at the back of the main hotel. It was a small pokey place used by the ‘men’ while their ‘masters’ drank in the main hotel. It closed as a pub around 1950 and then for many years afterwards was used as a snack-bar for the passengers of the numerous buses that called in the village in the 1950’s and 60’s. In 1980 it was turned into a bar and at weekends it was a popular late-night disco. In mid-December 2004 after several openings and closings it fell into a derelict state and was unfortunately burned down.