The Wheatsheaf Beerhouse Blunham

10 Park Lane August 2009

The Wheatsheaf Beerhouse: 10 Park Lane, Blunham

Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service has no records on this beerhouse other than licensing registers and inclusion in deeds relating to Morris & Company (Ampthill) Limited which owned it. William Clarke (if it was one man and not related individuals) is listed as a beerseller in Blunham from at least 1847 and remained landlord until 1899. The beerhouse, which seems to have operated from the small shed like building to the right in the photograph above, rather than from the main house, was closed in 1912.

The Rating and Valuation Act 1925 specified that every piece of land and building in the country was to be valued to determine the rates to be paid on it. The valuer visiting the former beerhouse, 10 Park Lane, in 1927 [DV1/C155/81] noted that the property was built of roughcast over brick [but see below] with a tiled roof. The main house comprised two pralours, a kitchen and scullery downstairs with two bedrooms above. A washhouse (presumably the former beerhouse) stood outside. The property was owned by F.Harding and occupied by H. Harding who "pays no fixed rent, landlord being brother". The valuer also noted: "Long, scattered place".

10 Park Lane was listed by English Heritage in March 1985 as Grade II, of special interest. They dated the property to the 18th century and noted a timber-framed construction with colour-washed plaster infill. The roof is modern and covers a single storey with bedrooms in the attics. There is a lean-to addition linking to the former beerhouse which has a colourwashed roughcast exterior and a pantiled roof.

Index References:

• HF143/1: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1872-1873;
• HF143/2: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1874-1877;
• HF143/3: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1878-1881;
• HF143/4: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1882-1890;
• WB/M4/1/VP2: mortgage from John Thomas Green of Woburn, solicitor to Susanna Morris, Mary Jane Morris and Sophia Morris of Ampthill of brewery and licensed properties of what would later become Morris & Company (Ampthill) Limited: 1882;
• HF143/5: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1891-1900;
• HF143/6: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1900-1914;
• PSBW8/1: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1903-1915;
• CCE5304/1: list of licensed premises conveyed to Morris & Company (Ampthill) Limited on its incorporation: 1907;
• Z720/218: correspondence regarding sale by Morris & Company (Ampthill) Limited eventually ending in sale to H.Harding of Blunham, market gardener: 1912 

List of Licensees: note that this is not a complete list. Italics indicate licensees whose beginning and/or end dates are not known:

1847-1899: William Clarke
1899-1906: Selina Clarke;
1906-1912: Herbert Currant;
1912: Alfred Lett
Beerhouse closed 28th December 1912