The Plough Beerhouse Broom

The Plough Beerhouse: High Street, Broom

The 1876 Register of Licensed Premises notes that this beerhouse was first licensed in 1836. Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service has relatively information on it but it seems to have been privately owned throughout much of its existence.

In 1927 Broom was valued under the Rating Valuation Act 1925; every piece of land and building in the county was assessed to determine the rates to be paid on it. The valuer visiting the Plough [DV1/C/153] noted that the brick and tile beerhouse was owned and occupied by J.Ray and comprised a tap room ("poor"), a bar, a private room, a kitchen and three bedrooms. Outside was a barn, a coal house, a hovel with a loft over, two henhouses and a three bay hovel with loft over. The valuer commented: " Trade: Doesn’t know but Flitton (Stotfold) is only brewer. Barely does a barrel a week. Very little bottled. Takings: Doesn’t know under £200". Beer was sold for 5d a pint.

By 1945 Flittons Brewery of Stotfold seem to have bought the premises and leased it out to tenants. The Plough is last noted in 1950, by the time of a register of licensed premises beginning in 1956 it is no longer listed. The premises itself was later demolished. It stood at the junction of the High Street, High Road and Kings Road and modern housing stands on the site today [2008].

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;
• 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;
• WB/Flitt/4/1/Broom/P/1: lease from Flittons Brewery to H.C.Brown: 1945;
• WB/Flitt/1/2/4: letter from solicitor stating location of Plough deeds: 1948;
• WB/Flitt/4/2/1: schedule of deeds of Flittons houses: 1949;
• WB/Flitt/4/2/2: noted as freehold property of Flittons, tenant rent free: 1950.

List of Licensees:

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

1841: Elizabeth Sells;
1851: William Cowland ‘carpenter & retailer of beer’.
1869-1900: George Chambers;
1900-1906: Albert Chambers;
1906-1907: Martha Ellen Chambers;
1907-1940: Jesse Ray
1945: George Alfred Barber;
1945: Horace Charles Brown;
1950: Bertram David Simonetti

Beerhouse closed before 1957