The Six Bells Beerhouse Eversholt

Wakehams February 2016

The Six Bells is, today, a listed private house known as Wakehams. The first mention of the beerhouse is in 1842 when it is mentioned in Quarter Sessions records [QSR1842/3/5/53]. A man named Joseph Bunker was offering silver teaspoons for sale at the Six Bells and the landlord of the Bell at Toddington, William Baker, got to hear about this. He had lost a silver teaspoon about a month before and contacted the police. They found that one of the teaspoons Bunker was selling matched the one that belonged to Baker. The Bedford Gaol register [QGV10/2] lists the prisoner as William Bunker - he was 27 and 5 feet 5 inches tall, with brown hair and grey eyes. On being found guilty he was given three months’ hard labour.

In 1871 Thomas Goodman, a baker from Woburn, parked his cart outside the Six Bells and someone stole seven quarters of flour from it [QSR1871/2/5/9]. The person charged was Jesse Brown of Eversholt, aged 18. On being found guilty he was given twelve months’ hard labour with seven years supervision.

The beerhouse belonged to John Morris of Ampthill, whose firm was floated on the stock market in 1907 as Morris & Company (Ampthill) Limited. The Six Bells closed for the last time in 1917.

References:

• QSR1842/3/5/53: fencing stolen goods at the Six Bells: 1842;
• PSW3/1: Register of Alehouse Licences - Woburn Petty Sessional Division: 1868-1949;
• QSR1871/2/5/9: theft from a cart at Six Bells: 1871;
• WB/M/4/1/VP2: Mortgage from John Thomas Green to Susanna, Mary Jane and Sophia Morris of a number of properties: 1882;
• SF81/1/3: sale of manure by James Pepper: 1886;
• CCE 5304/1: conveyed by Morris family to Morris & Company (Ampthill) Limited: 1907.

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

1847-1869: William Pepper;
1876-1902: James Pepper
1902-1917: James Ernest Goodman
Beerhouse closed 1917