The Talbot Inn was first listed in the directories of 1784. Despite retaining it's name, the original pub actually closed in 1927. The current Talbot public house is a combination of a new building and the original pub’s carriage house and stables.

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The Talbot possibly took it's name from the now extinct breed of hunting dog, although it's also possible it is related to the Earl of Shrewsbury family name. The Earls of Shrewsbury had owned land and maintained a small hunting lodge locally in Alton for hundreds of years. In 1812 the family moved into the lodge permanently and began converting it, after many years (and two Earls) it became the grand Alton Towers.

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In 1911 the Palace Cinema opened next to the Talbot (on the land what is now the pub's car park) it stayed open for forty years closing in 1954, the building was demolished in 1962.

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A team from the Talbot came second in 1981's Cheadle Festival Pram Race; contestants raced from the Wheatsheaf to the finish line at the Osborne Bingo Hall (formally the town hall) the winner was Carl Penaluna, £80 was raised.

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Between 1988 and 2011, the pub was owned by five different breweries; John Smith's, Wards Brewery, Vaux Breweries, Pubmaster and in 2011 Punch Taverns.

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Long term licensees John and Hilary Bailey left the pub in December 2011, retiring from the trade. It could be said John was born into the trade, as he was born in the pub his parent's ran and was presented to regulars while only 20 minutes old!

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The Talbot was featured on a BBC website feature about Staffordshire’s oldest pubs, as did the Royal Oak:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/stoke/content/image_galleries/oldest_pubs_gallery.shtml?9

 

After having some temporary managers, the pub abruptly closed in January 2017 and was put up for sale shortly after.

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Proprietors:

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Joseph England (The Universal British Directory 1791, 1793)
John Swinson (Parson and Bradshaw - Staffordshire Directory 1818, Pigot & Co.'s National Directory 1828-29 and White’s Directory of Staffordshire 1834)
George Tipper [1834-1860] (Victorian Cheadle 1841-1881)
Emma Tipper (1868 Post Office Directory) [until 1871]
Edwin Tipper [1872-1876] (Victorian Cheadle 1841-1881)
Edwin James (Kelly's Directory of Staffordshire 1880 and 1884) [until 1888]
Ann James [from March 1888] (Kelly's Directory of Staffordshire 1892)
Frank Tipper (Kelly's Directory of Staffordshire 1896, Cheadle Herald 1898)
William Henry Baker (Cheadle Herald 1898, 1901 Census, Kelly’s Directory of Staffordshire 1900 and 1904)

Peter Emmett (c.1910 Information and Kelly’s Directory of Staffordshire 1912, 1921, 1924, 1932 and 1940)[until 1955]
Mr and Mrs. Ken Garnett (Cheadle Post and Times 1979)

John Bailey [from 1988]  

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Marti Grice (The Sentinel 2013)

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