The Black Horse Beerhouse Broom

Former Black Horse Broom September 2007

The Black Horse Beerhouse, Southill Road, Broom

The deeds to this property enable us to determine that this beerhouse was built by William Hine between February and August 1851 just south of Southill Road near the River Ivel and the Southill parish boundary with Biggleswade. The site had been part of a stone and gravel pit until it was sold to William Hine by the parish of Southill in 1850 (stone and gravel being used by the Overseers of the Highways, who were parish officers, for improvement of the roads in the parish).

A Register of Licensed Premises for the county for 1876 notes that the Black Horse was first registered in 1851 so it was obviously built as a beerhouse. They were partners in a firm which later became known as Wells & Company. The firm was taken over by Kent businessman George Winch in 1899, for his son Edward Bluett Winch, and the company was renamed Wells & Winch. This company was, in turn, taken over by Suffolk brewers Greene King in 1961.

The beerhouse was valued in 1927 under the rating valuation Act 1925 when the valuer noted that it was a brick & tile, detached property with: tap room ("fair"); cellar; kitchen; 2 bedrooms; lumber room; barn and 2 loose boxes. In his opinion it was a: "Very poor looking place. No cottages around. Buses take trade away". This trade was reckoned to be, on average, 9 gallons a week, a very low figure. As the valuer noted: "Doesn’t sell bottled stuff. Says doesn’t pay for licence because of buses". Not selling bottled beer was, indeed, very unusual at the time. The takings, as may be imagined, were said to be less than £40 per annum. The last evidence of the beerhouse comes in the Kelly's Directory of 1940. By the time of the register of licenses for 1957 the house had, not surprisingly, closed for business.

References:

• GK36/1: certified copy of Southill Inclosure Award regarding public stone and gravel pit at Broom: 1850;
• GK36/2: Refusal of Lord Ongley to buy the gravel pit: 1850;
• GK36/3: copy of Southill Vestry minute agreeing to sell 0a 3r 4p of land , the eastern part of the stone and gravel pit to William Hine of Broom for £49/15/-: 1850;
• GK36/4: copy of Special Sessions of Highways minutes agreeing the sale to William Hine: 1850;
• GK36/5: conveyance of 0a 3r 4p of land south of Broom to Holme Mills Road by Southill vestry to William Hine, yeoman: 1850;
• GK36/6: mortgage by William Hine to East Bedfordshire Provident House & Land Society: 1850;
• GK36/7: mortgage by William Hine to James Long Betts, Thomas Smith and Alfred Haddow: 1851;
• GK36/8: mortgage by William Hine to William Hogge and Robert Lindsell of land and messuage newly erected upon it: 1851;
• GK36/9: further advance from Hogge and Lindsell to Hine: 1854;
• GK36/13: release of equity of redemption by William Hine to William and Frederick Hogge, Robert Henry and Charles Lindsell: 1860;
• 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;
• HF143/5: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1891-1900;
• GK1/36: three sales catalogues bound together: Wells & Company of Biggleswade 1898; Henlow Brewery 1899; Baldock Brewery Limited 1903;
• Z1039/34/1: conveyance of licensed properties from Frederick Archdale, Charles Samuel Lindsell, Henry Martin Lindsell and Arthur Knox Lindsell to Wells & Winch: 1899;
• HF143/6: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1900-1914;
• PSBW8/1: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1903-1915;
• DV1/C/153: rating valuation: 1927

List of Licensees:

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

1851-1887: William Hine;
1887: Ann Hine;
1887-1931: George Davies;
1936-1945: Frederick John Huckle
Beerhouse closed between 1945 and 1957