Site of the Red Lion - July 2008

Red Lion Public House: Brook Lane, Harrold

In 1768 Thomas Jones of Cople, husbandman and Margaret, his wife, sold a cottage, yard and garden in Harrold to Judith Mee of Harrold, widow for £15. This was described as being in Water Lane and "lately used as a house for the Poor and called the Workhouse, now divided into 2 tenements occupied by John Amis and John Felpts", it abutted west on ground of William Felpts and east on a house of Edward Abraham [GA1041-1042]. Three years later this property was leased out and was then known as the Red Lion [GA1043].

It seems likely that Water Lane is the modern Brook Lane. In 1928 an article in the Bedfordshire Times stated that the old workhouse was said, by locals, to have stood on the site then occupied by Clarke's boot tree factory. If so the former parish workhouse and the Red Lion were both immediately south of the modern 54 and 56 Brook Lane

References:

• GA1043: lease for 21 years from Judith Mee of Harrold, widow to James Mee of Harrold, baker: 1771

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:

1771: James Mee