Cornfields Restaurant and Hotel Colmworth

The Wheatsheaf about 1926 [WL800/4]

Cornfields Restaurant and Hotel [formerly The Wheatsheaf also The Old Wheatsheaf]: Wilden Road, Roothams Green, Colmworth  

The former Wheatsheaf Public House was listed by the former Department of Environment in August 1983 as Grade II, of special interest. The department dated the building to the 17th century. It is constructed of colourwashed brick and roughcast over a timber frame and the roof is tiled. The house comprises a single storey with attics. Two 20th century extensions have been added, one to the western gable end, the other projecting west from the rear. The porch is 20th century.

The building may not necessarily always have been a public house and, in fact, its first mention in any document held by Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service as such, is in the register of alehouse recognizances beginning in 1822. By the beginning of the 20th century the establishment was owned by the Wade-Gery family who were leasing it to Saint Neots [Huntingdonshire] brewers Day & Son and, from them its lease passed to Charles Wells in 1919.

The Rating and Valuation Act 1925 specified that every building and piece of land in the country was to be assessed to determine the rates to be paid on it. Colmworth, like most of the rest of Bedfordshire, was valued in 1927 and the valuer visiting the Wheatsheaf described it as a free house Charles Wells' lease had obviously expired), owned by the Wade-Gery family. He described the premises as being brick and tile and comprising a tap room ("fair"), kitchen, scullery, living room and cellar with three attic bedrooms on the first floor. Outside were a chaff house, stable for three horses, cow shed for three beasts, barn, cart lodge and pig sty. Adjoining and occupied with the public house were 2.957 acres of grassland. The tenant also occupied a further 4.589 acres of grassland nearby. Trade was only about five gallons of beer per week with spirits "practically nil".

The Wheatsheaf closed as a public house in 1995 and is now a hotel and restaurant called Cornfields

The Wheatsheaf in 1962 [Z53/32/7]

References:

• CLP13: Register of Alehouse Recognizances: 1822-1828;
• PSS3/1: Register of Alehouse Licences - Sharnbrook Petty Sessional Division: c.1901;
• PSS3/2: Register of Alehouse Licences - Sharnbrook Petty Sessional Division: c.1903;
• PSS3/3: Register of Alehouse Licences - Sharnbrook Petty Sessional Division: 1904-1930
• PK1/4/3: sale particulars of cottages near Wheatsheaf: 1904;
• PK7/2/15: copy 7 year lease from Richard Wade-Gery to Day & Son: 1919;
• GK175/2: photocopy sale catalogue of Day & Son properties: 1919;
• WL800/5 p.31: photograph: c.1925;
• WL801/112: negative of above: c.1925;
• DV1/C180: rating valuation: 1927;
• RDBP3/521: plans for additions: 1945;
• RDBP3/555: plans for additions: 1946;
• Bedfordshire Magazine vii.88: photograph: 1959;
• Z53/32/7: photograph: 1962;
• BorB/TP/79/2253: plans and elevation of new beer store: 1979;
• Z49/753: print by D.Green: 1980s 

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

1822 - 1828: George Loxley;
1869-1877: William Swales;
1885-1910: George Swales;
1914-1936: William H. Bates
1940: Alfred Ernest Jolly;
1962-1979: Frank Swann Howe;
1979-1980: Sandra Brenda Palmer;
1980-1983: Grahan Hartwell;
1983-1986: Ann Harris;
1986-1995: Keith James Graham

Cornfields Restaurant and Hotel March 2007