The Green Man Public House Eversholt

The Green Man August 2007

The Green Man is one of Eversholt’s older public houses and now [2016] the last one left in business. The earliest mention of it is in the first countywide alehouse register of 1822 [CLP13]. The pub was owned by the Eversholt Parochial Charity also known as the Town Estate Charity, the purpose of which was to benefit the poor, promote elementary education, including provision of a parish library, and maintain the church. Sadly most of the early records seem to be lost. One early account book (1734-1776) survives [X782/2/1] but does not seem, on a brief inspection, to mention the pub. The current buildings look as if they might be early 19th century.

In 1834 licensee Joel Bunker got mixed up in some sheep stealing [CRT150/118]. Around 4.30 on the morning on 28th June Thomas Creamer went to tend Richard Reddall’s sheep in Milton Bryan and found the head and skin “of one of my master’s fat lambs”. He was told by Reddall that he could keep the head and, as he was skinning it, he found the point of a knife embedded in the neck bone. He duly handed this knife-point to Reddall

Reddall got some handbills printed asking for information about the crime. He went to Joel Bunker’s public house and saw a knife with no point lying on a bench in the yard. Bunker admitted the knife was his and let Reddall have it to see if the point matched the remainder of the knife. It turned out that Bunker had lent the knife to Thomas Fasey. When it was found that the point and the blade did indeed match Fasey was arrested. The register of Bedford Gaol [QGV1/1] tells us that Fasey was tall for the day at 5 feet 7 inches, aged 25, with brown hair and a fresh complexion. On being found guilty he was transported for life. He had been imprisoned once before, for poaching, in 1832 along with a George Fasey, probably his brother. Both men were described as “bad characters”.

Another incident took place in 1877 when Emma Smith of Tingrith was arrested at the pub [QSR1877/1/5/2]. She had taken a flannel petticoat she had found in a parcel laid in a hedge. This had been done by a man carrying it to a servant of Miss Trevor at Tingrith House who had laid it in a hedge in another woman’s garden while he went home and had then forgotten about it! The gaol register tells us that Emma was acquitted of theft [QGV12/2].

The Rating and Valuation Act 1925 specified that every building and piece of land in the country was to be assessed to determine its rateable value. The valuer visiting the Green Man found it owned by J W Green Limited and the tenant, Albert Plater paid rent of £20 per annum which included a 4,632 acre grass field at Higher Rads End. In fact the pub was still owned by the Eversholt Parochial Charity, which had leased it to brewers Morris & Company (Ampthill) Limited in 1926 [WB/Green4/1/Ever/GM1] the same year Morris & Company was taken over by J W Green. The lease to Green was renewed in 1939 [WB/Green4/1/Ever/GM3].

The property contained a bar, (“fair”), a tap room (“good”), a smoke room (“very good”), a pantry, a scullery and a washhouse with four bedrooms above. Outside stood a coal barn, a stable, a coachhouse and a pigsty. Trade was 1½ 36-gallon barrels of beer per week and three bottles of spirits per month. The valuer commented: “Fairly large place with Church-like door, opposite Church”.

J W Green merged with Midlands brewer Flowers in 1954, the new firm taking the Flowers name. In 1962 Flowers was taken over by Whitbread. Whitbread divested itself of its brewery and public house business in 2001.

The Green Man February 2016

Sources:

• X782: part of Eversholt Parochial Charity estate: 1734-1977
• CLP13: Register of alehouse licences: 1822 – 1828
• CRT150/118: evidence given by licensee regarding Thomas Fasey stealing and killing a lamb: 1834;
• PSW3/1: Register of Alehouse Licences - Woburn Petty Sessional Division: 1868-1949;
• QSR1877/1/5/2: arrest at Green Man on suspicion of theft: 1877;
• WB/M/4/2/1: mentioned on list of properties of Morris & Company (Ampthill) Limited: c.1926;
• WB/M/4/2/2: mentioned on list of properties of Morris & Company (Ampthill) Limited: 1926;
• WB/Green4/1/Ever/GM1: lease from Eversholt Parochial Charity Estate to Morris & Company (Ampthill) Limited: 1926
• WB/Green4/2/2: register detailing payments to landlords: 1927-1953
• PSA5/2: Register of Alehouse Licences - Ampthill Petty Sessional Division: 1934-1959;
• WB/Green4/2/5: list of properties of J.W.Green Limited: c.1936;
• WB/Green/6/4/1: J.W.Green Limited trade analysis ledger for various properties: 1936-1947;
• WB/Green4/2/4: Certificate of title of J.W.Green Limited to various properties: 1936-1952;
• WB/Green4/1/Ever/GM3: lease from Eversholt Parochial Charity Estate to J.W.Green Limited: 1939;
• WB/Green4/2/9: Schedule of deeds of properties owned by J.W.Green Limited: 1949;
• PSW3/2: Register of Alehouse Licences - Woburn Petty Sessional Division: 1949-1953
• WB/Green45/Ev/GM1-2: photographs: 1950s
• WB/Green4/2/16: list pf properties owned by J.W.Green Limited: 1952;
• Z1105/1: Liquor Licence Traders Survey Form: 1953
• WB/Green4/2/19: lists of properties owned by J.W.Green Limited: 1954;
• PSA5/5: Register of Alehouse Licences - Ampthill Petty Sessional Division: 1968-1995.

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

1822-1824: William Reddall;
1825-1834: Joel Bunker;
1847-1854: Richard Farmer;
1869-1878: Mrs Ruth Smith;
1878: William Clarke;
1878-1879: James Millett;
1879-1880: John Frederick Horrick;
1880: Thomas Frodd;
1880-1881: John Harris;
1881-1882: Frederick Toe;
1882-1890: William Beasley;
1890-1892: William Willis Stubbs;
1892-1900: Arthur William Shillingford;
1900-1902: Mary Ann Shillingford;
1902-1915: Arthur William Shillingford;
1915: Mary Ann Shillingford;
1915-1922: James Dewberry;
1922-1924: Charles Gee;
1924-1933: Albert Plater;
1933-1959: William Anstee;
1967-1968: Kenneth Herbert Moores;
1968-1983: William John Rose;
1983: Nigel John Smith;
1983-1987: Kenneth James Edge;
1987: David Richard Finn;
1987-1995: Stephen Frank Roots