The Angel Public House Carlton
This page was written by Pam Hider
The former Angel Public House March 2009
The Angel Public House: 19 High Street, Carlton
The Angel was first listed by the former Department of the Environment in August 1987 as Grade II, of special interest. The listing information is as follows:
“C17 house extended C18 and altered C19. Original two bay block of colour washed limestone rubble. Welsh slate roof with stone gable coping. Central ridge chimney stack with stone base and brick top. Two storeys. First floor has two C19 sash windows with glazing bars. Ground floor has central doorway in line with stack; to the right is a plain late C19 sash, to the left a sash window with glazing bars. To the S end a T-plan extension was made in the C18. This has a single bay adjoining the original building with a 2-bay wing projecting westwards at right angles to the main house. Colour washed limestone rubble. Old clay tile roof with gable coping to W. and S. gable ends. Brick chimney stack to S. gable end and on ridge at join of two wings. Stone chimney stack to W. gable end. N. elevation: first floor has two C19 sash windows.”
Correspondence between Watney Mann (Midlands) Ltd, Phipps Brewery and a Mr. C.C. Pollard dated April 1969 (in private ownership) refers to an early conveyance of the property in 1702 from William Rudd to Gideon and Richard Rudd. At that time it was known as Queen Ann Cottage. It became two cottages in 1726 and maltings were added by 1824.
The first record of The Angel being licensed as a public house dates from 1834 (CL/P19/1) but it may have been used for that purpose before then. An 1805 advertisement in the Northampton Mercury refers to an auction being held at the ‘Angel Inn, Carlton’ in that March but the inn isn’t mentioned in the registers of alehouse licences that survive for 1822 to 1828 (CL/P13). It’s possible that there were two different properties with the same name or that it closed for a time between 1805 and 1834. Trade directories of 1839 and 1847 give the occupant as ‘Thomas Eyles, publican and baker’, although the bakery was almost certainly next door at 21 High Street. In 1875 the Angel was for sale. The description [see below] read:"'The Angel Inn' 5 Bedchambers, Parlour, Bar, Tap Room, Club Room and good cellarage, capital stabling & roomy premises, kitchen and flower gardens".
"Capital 6-quarter malting adjoining with large Granary, Malt & Corn Chambers. Lately belonging to Samuel Skevington, deceased".
Part of a sale poster of 1875 [GA2152] to see a larger version please click on the image
In 1876 the occupier was William Rudd and the owner William Ferguson of Milton Ernest. By 1891 it was owned by Hipwell & Company of Olney and became a tied house, occupied by Thomas Jarvis. From 1903 until 1910 the landlord was William Smith. A later tenant Charles Litchfield supplemented the income from the pub by running a transport operation from the large stone barn that then belonged to The Angel. He also ran buses in competition with the contemporary Franklin bus service. The tenant after him, Frederick Holvey, was a wheelwright, who pursued his trade in the Angel barn and also kept pigs and sties behind it.
In 1927 property in Carlton was valued under the Rating and Valuation Act of 1925. Every piece of land and building in the country had to be valued to determine the rates to be paid upon it. The valuer visiting the Angel Inn noted that the owner was Phipps & Company and the occupier Charles Litchfield [DV1/C218/105]. The premises comprised a bar parlour, a club room, a tap room and a kitchen with six bedrooms upstairs, four not then in use (a later hand has written "4 + 2 others"). Outside was stabling for two horses, a barn used as garage ("all in one") and a lean-to glasshouse (the later hand has crossed this out and written "gone").
The rent in 1927 was £42. The valuer wrote, 'Paid £42 which is obviously high' and 'Say Tied Rent £22’; trade was £13 ½ beer and spirits £2; total £37.10 shillings rounded to £37. The rent was refused and 'referred to brewers'. The outcome was noted as follows: "Messrs Phipps wrote 18/11/1927 - Trade only 44 bols. during last year. Rent £12 (Tied rent had been £12 for some years). L. prop 1/2 lic. duty. Want us to reduce old Gr. 24. Say fair tied rent £16; 44 bols @ 3/6 = £8; spirits say £2; Total £28. Reduced by proposal accordingly 25/11/1927". This appears not to have been the end of the matter however, as rubber stamps giving dates of adjournment are in evidence as late as 1935.
The Angel had been conveyed to Phipps & Company in 1921 and later to Watney Mann (Midlands) Ltd, Manns Northampton Brewery and later Chef & Brewer. After the mid-1970s, there was a succession of short lived tenancies and in the 1980s, the pub was sold again to Banks’ Brewery of Wolverhampton. Declining beer sales led to the sale of the Angel; it was de-licensed and has been a private dwelling since 1994.
The side and rear of the former Angel Public House March 2009
List of Licensees (note that this is not a complete list; entries in italics refer to licensees where either beginning or end or both dates are not known):
1839-1862: Thomas Eyels or Eyles; maltster, farmer and overseer
1864: Marshall Eyles;
1869-1871: George Parris;
1871-1875: Samuel Skevington;
1876-1883: William Rudd;
1885: George Ives
1890-1894: Thomas Jarvis;
1898-1901: Sidney Bonfield;
1903-1910: William Charles Smith;
1911-1912: Joseph Swales;
1914-1915: Arthur Fortnum;
1915-1933: Charles Litchfield;
1933-1952: Frederick Holvey;
1957-1969: Sidney Victor Day;
1969-1973: James Stirling;
1973-1974: Grace Caroline Mabel Stirling;
1974-1976: David Richard Badcock;
1976-1984: Graham Allen Payton;
1984-1985: David James Bunker;
1985-1986: John Marcus Jefferson Geerts;
1986-1988: Robert Olsen Williams;
1988: Leonard John Addison;
1988: Roy Sullivan;
1988-1990: Robert Shanks;
1990-1991: Paul Breese;
1991-1994: David Roy Bradshaw
Public house closed 11 January 1994
References:
- Licensing Register CL/P19/1; Census 1871; 1911
- Electoral Rolls 1877 - 83; 1901; 1912.
- Kelly's Directories 1894, 1898, 1903, 1910, 1914.