The pub was known as the Rifle Arms Inn in 1893.

On Saturday there was much excitement in Sudbury by the fact that a strange Police Inspector and two strange constables, all in uniform were pursuing in hot haste up North street two soldiers whom they captured near the Rifle Arms Inn. The men, Private Nicholls and Cook of the Suffolk Regiment were handcuffed and taken to the police station where they were charged with attempting burglary at the Bull in Colchester. The police walked all the way from Colchester to the Five Bells at Cornard where they hired a horse and trap…