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Sportspace - Hemel Hempstead
 
 
Friday, 3rd September 2010

 
PUBS OF THE HIGH STREET
The pubs of the High Street was written and researched by Elizabeth Buteux MA.
She and her husband, John, are former 'mine hosts' of The Olde Bell in the High Street.
Her book Times Highway tells the history of the High Street.


AT one time there were 24 licensed premises in the High Street, Hemel Hempstead and the presence of so many drinking houses in the High Street reflects the street’s function as a market street. They were not only used for social purposes but also meeting places in which to conduct business.
It is difficult to trace
exactly where all the pubs were located, especially over such a large time span of five centuries and especially as the High Street was not
numbered until the late 19th century.
Some inns and beer houses disappeared altogether and others became private houses or other businesses. However, using the Billeting Return of 1756, later Trade Directories, censuses, wills, inventories, plans of licensed premises, bills of sale, and newspapers, among other sources, helped me to establish many of the lost licensed premises. Nineteenth century photographs also provide invaluable source material.

THE BOOT
One pub, The Boot,
photographed in the 1880s was at the
entrance of the High Street, at what is now No.9. As it did not have stables it was a
lodging house with a bar.
The Boot, as with so many of the beer houses in the High Street, is an example where the landlord, apart from running a pub, needed another occupation to make ends meet whilst his wife ran the
business.
James Barnes is listed in the 1851 Census as being a ‘carpenter/innkeeper’. Then, in 1917, a full-on licence was granted to the Jackson family, and later, The Boot was bought by Benskins Brewery.
The brewers closed the pub in 1939 and transferred the
licence to another property, also called The Boot, at St Albans Hill, Hemel Hempstead.
Some licensed premises changed names and an example of this is a public house dating from 1690, which was situated at 11 High Street. The owner, Miss Jane Halsey, bequeathed this in her will, dated May 29, 1747, to her nephew Thomas Halsey.
According to the will it was, ‘by name of The Ship, formerly called the Hollybush’.
Moving up the east side of the High Street, at No.19, is the Rose and Crown, one of the four surviving pubs. The building today, is not the same as it was in 1523, when William Patewyn combined the business with his trade as a butcher, for the building was altered with a brick front at the beginning of the 18th century.
According to John Rickson’s inventory of 1725, the building was large with both a brew house and a beer cellar. Access to the cattle markets and the fairs held in the meadow was through the Rose and Crown alleyway.
At No.23, was the Cock Inn, one of the first inns to be built in the High Street, for it is mentioned as one of the properties conveyed by the Earl of Leicester to the Earl of Bedford in 1574.
The Cock appears to have been enlarged during the extensive rebuilding of the High Street in the 18th century, when it was an inn of three storeys with a cellar. However by the middle of the 19th century it had become a common lodging house, until 1857, when Joseph Cranstone, the ironmonger, who had a shop next door at No.25, purchased the property in order to
extend his engineering works.

The Swan in the late 1940spictured with staff from Hemel Hempstead Engineering which was then based at the back of the High Street
The former Swan Inn was at No.29, and appears to have been a fairly large inn. In 1756, Thomas Sellar had five bedrooms and stabling for 31 horses, and by 1850, it was a thriving business run by the Donaldson family. The Swan, pictured right, survived well into the 20th century, finally closing in 1963.
The King’s Arms which, is the second of the remaining inns, is an early 17th century building with a plaster-faced road front. Apart from being a busy coaching inn, there was a considerable increase in trade when the Plait Market was moved from Collet’s Yard, in 1832, to the yard at the back of the inn. Previously, in 1750, the inn was renamed the Prince’s Arms, and towards the end of the 18th century it merged with a neighbouring inn called the Black Lion, with John Mallatrot as landlord. Later the two inns separated with the King’s Arms reverting to its original name.
No.49 was once the site of the Three Compasses. The pub had a shared delivery at the rear in St Mary’s Road with the next inn, the Old Bell. There was no room for visitors to stay, nor stabling for horses. According to the 1851 Census, Thomas and Anne Shroud had a full
licence and it appears to have been a fairly good glass establishment, and Mrs Betsy Sear, a widow, also ran the business successfully from 1870-1878.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the property was bought by Benskins Brewery and let to tenants. However, the lack of stabling and space for vehicles made the pub
difficult to run and it closed on December 31, 1912.
The Old Bell, the third of the remaining pubs, was the largest and most prestigious inn of the High Street. A Billeting Return of 1756 reveals that Thomas Edge, then the landlord of the Bell, had room for nine beds and stabling for 54 horses. Dating from 1603, the original inn still exists but is hidden by a later 18th
century extension which was built to level up the building line of the street. During the 19th century the Old Bell competed with the Kings Arms to provide catering services for the Bailiwick at the Town Hall.
The shop at No.63, like the Old Bell, has an early 18th century front to a 16th century timber-framed structure and this was the site of the Angel Inn. It had the Angel pew in St Mary’s Church for the use of travellers staying at the inn. Somewhere in this area was The Boat, run by Martha Durrant in 1838, and a very early inn, The Legge, just two of the inns that have long since disappeared.
The renovated shops at Nos. 75 and 77, were originally built at street level in the mid -16th century. Forming one building it does not conform to any known building plan and it is possible that until 1781, it was a small inn - The Mermaid. The building was extensively altered over the centuries with two wings added around 1600. One with minor extensions in 1800, was the site of an inn, the Lord Nelson. The Hawe family, who owned the shop in the 20th century found the sign of the Lord Nelson in their
cellar.
The shop at No.81, was once The Sun, pictured top right, which according to the Billeting Return of 1756, was an inn of quite a considerable size. There was room for five beds, and extensive out buildings that were used for stabling 30 horses.
In addition there was room for five wagon drivers to sleep above the stables.
The Sun also became well- known as a meeting place for the Artisans Benefit Society which was formed to provide sickness and death benefits for its members.
The Sun survived into the 20th century, finally closing in 1960.

UP the High Street, at the corner of Cherry Bounce, once stood the Oak, which was renamed the Royal Oak to commemorate the restoration of Charles II to the throne in 1660.


The Royal Oak, on the corner
Then in 1664, after a decision by the Justices of Quarter Sessions for the need of a House of Correction in Hemel Hempstead, this was established in a part of the Royal Oak premises, with Christopher Mitchell appointed as master. By the end of the seventeenth century, however, the building was used as an ordinary jail.
Later in the mid nineteenth century after the jail was closed, Mrs Isabella Harrington ran the business, described in the 1851 Census as a public house, but in reality it was a common lodging house. The beer house eventually gained a full license but this run down pub was finally closed in the early 1970s, and the site was tastefully converted into three houses.
Crossing over to the west side of the High Street, the Coach and Horses was once situated at No.86.
This beer house, patronised by tramps and labourers kept going until 1912.

THE BREWERS ARMS
Further on was the Brewers Arms which remained a common lodging house well into the 1960s.
The Old Kings Head, another beer house, was at No.66, which according to Kelly’s Directory, was still operating in 1882. However, the pub frequently changed hands, which indicates that trade was poor. Henry Hall, for example, the landlord at the time of the 1851 Census, is described by the enumerator as a labourer.
Next door but one to the Old King’s Head, at what is now Townend House, stood the Red Lion, which had accommodation for four beds and stabling for 16 horses. But the inn was little more than a common lodging house, with the 1851 Census describing the nine lodgers as labourers.

The Red Lion
By the end of the nineteenth century, the brewers, Chesham and Brackley, closed the pub in order to transfer the license to the Midland Hotel, Midland Hill, Hemel Hempstead. The property was then sold to East the drapers. As the High Street was improved and restored over the past 30 years, these pubs and lodging houses were converted into attractive private houses.
Nineteenth century photographs show the Lamb public house at No.48.

The Lamb
This beer house, dating back to the sixteenth century, was purchased by the Bailiwick in 1886 to construct further Bailiwick buildings.
Then past the Old Town Hall is the White Hart, the last of the four remaining pubs. Unlike the Old Bell, the inn does not have a false front, but is one of the seventeenth century inns which stood facing the original street. First registered as a tavern, by the mid nineteenth century, the White Hart had flourished to become a busy inn.
Beyond the White Hart, the Dolphin stood on the site of the now closed National Westminster Bank.
It appears to have been a small ale house which disappeared at the end of the eighteenth century.
At the bottom of the High Street, on a site now occupied by The Pine Shop at Nos. 24-26, stood the Half Moon Inn which was established in the early eighteenth century. It offered little accommodation but was enlarged in the following century.
A Bill of Sale dated 1827, reveals that there were two bars, a kitchen and ‘four sleeping rooms’.
In 1901, the brewers, Wellers of Amersham, bought the Half Moon as a freehold public house together with the shop next door, No.26 High Street.
The property was later sold to William Frederick Williams, a greengrocer, the Half Moon having been closed on December 31, 1912.
Sometimes it is very difficult to locate the exact sites of pubs that have disappeared, as in the case of a pub referred to in a business transaction as the Shoulder of Mutton, once known as the Castle, which was situated at the lower end of the town. This could have been in Queensway, which was once part of the High Street.
A poster advertising the sale of the George Inn by auction in 1791, is an example of a property being in the High Street but with no indication of the exact location. When the property was sold in 1791, it probably ceased trading as an inn.
By the end of the nineteenth century all the pubs were bought by brewers who let the properties to tenants.
Today, the brewers prefer to run the pubs with managers, and in keeping with modern times, they are mostly theme pubs. Many of the lost inns are now shops, restaurants or have been converted into attractive private houses.
A more detailed report on each pub may be found in my book Time’s Highway.

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