Horse and Jockey Caddington

The Horse and Jockey in the late 1960s [PL/PH2/65]

The Horse & Jockey Public House: 125 Watling Street, Caddington

Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service does not have much in the way of source material for this public house mainly because, although originally owned by Dunstable brewer Benjamin Bennett, it was taken over by Mann, Crossman & Paulin of Whitechapel in 1938. To judge by the licensing records the beerhouse, as it then was opened around 1893, only becoming a public house in the twentieth century.

The countywide licensing register of 1903 states that the beerhouse had first been licensed prior to 1869 but this is surely a mistake as it is not listed in the previous countywide registers of 1876 and 1891. The 1903 register states that the House and Jockey was 975 yards from the nearest licensed premises and had a front door and another door from the yard at the side. It was described as in good repair, clean and satisfactory as regards sanitation.

In 1927 the beerhouse was valued under the 1925 Rating Valuation Act [DV1/C96/20] at which point it comprised a bar, tap room, reception room and kitchen downstairs, with a cellar below and four bedrooms upstairs; outside were four pig sties, three cow houses, a coachhouse, a public urinal and two earth closets. Trade was not so good consisting of 1½ barrels of beer and three dozen bottles of beer per week with two dozen bottles of minerals; surprisingly, considering he had been licensee for 34 years, Thomas Goodman did not know the gross takings. Later the valuer "saw Eeles", presumably one of Bennett's brewery staff and discovered that "capacity more than actual" trade and reduced the valuation accordingly.

Mann, Crossman and Paulin merged with other companies to form Watney Mann in 1958 and this firm merged with Grand Metropolitan Hotels in 1972. In more recent years the Horse and Jockey was owned successively by Regent Inns (formed 1977) then Acrevale Limited.

The Horse & Jockey in March 2007

References:

• PSL6a/1: Register of Alehouse Licences: c.1890-1922;
• PSL6a/2: Register of Alehouse Licences: 1922-1964;
• DV1/C96: rating valuation: 1927;
• PL/PH2/65: photograph: 1960s;
• PCCaddington30/4: transfer of licence: 1996; 
• PCCaddington30/6: transfer of licence: 1997;
• PCCaddington30/9: transfer of licence: 1998;
• PCCaddington30/13-14: transfer of licence: 2000

List of Licensees: note that this is not a complete list. Italics indicate licensees whose beginning and/or end dates are not known:
1893-1933: Thomas Goodman;
1933-1934: Ralph Warren Marshall;
1934-1941: James Payne;
1941-1949: William Goss Kentish;
1949: Cyril Frank Tompkins;
1985: Raymond Louth and Peter Charles Barrett;
1988-1990: Boris Marcow and John William Holden Emblem Liley;
1990: Trevor Grant Hitchings and Neville Snell;
1990-1991: Anthony Howard Mears and Maurice Nelson;
1991-1993: Peter Charles Crabbe and Stuart William Jeffrey;
1993-1996: Susan Patricia Walsh and Stuart William Jeffrey;
1996: Anthony Johnstone;
1996-1998: Francis George O'Callaghan;
1998: Gavin Bishen
1998-2000: Susan Elizabeth Miller; 
2000: Simon Neil Webster