The Sportsman Public House Flitwick

The Sportsman Beerhouse: East End, Flitwick

Bedfordshire Archive and Record Service has only one reference to the Sportsman, from a sale catalogue of Dunstable Brewery dated 1843. The catalogue [BH409] lists the Sportsman as a beer shop in East End. It comprised a tap room, a parlour, a lean-to washhouse, a cellar, two bedrooms, a forecourt with a well, yard, stable and piggery and also an enclosure of garden ground adjoining abutting on road and lane of 1 acre, 15 poles. It was occupied by Richard Burgoine at a rent of £8 per annum and title commenced with a conveyance in 1831. It is likely that this was the date of the first licensing of the property because in 1828 there were just three licensed premises in Flitwick - the Blackbirds, the Crown and the Swan. The beerhouse seems to have been short-lived as it does not seem to appear in the countywide licensing register for 1876 - the only properties listed being the Blackbirds, Crown, Swan, Wheatsheaf and two unnamed beerhouses which became the Fir Tree and the White Horse.

Sources:

• BH409 Dunstable Brewery Sale Catalogue 25 July 1843

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