The Plume of Feathers Leighton Buzzard

The Corn Exchange and Plume of Feathers about 1909 [Z1306/72]

Plume of Feathers Public House: 11 Lake Street

The first mention of this freehold public house is in 1683 when Mathew Disney of Stoke Hammond [Buckinghamshire] was about to marry Sarah Ironside of Heath and Reach and conveyed the public house, then called simply the Heathers, together with the Bell and other land to trustees as a portion for his intended wife [F209/13-14]. In 1705 Disney conveyed the Bell and the Feathers to a trustee to bar the entail set up in 1683 [F209/9]; there are no records to tell us why.

Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service is lucky enough to have the deeds to the public house, deposited as part of the archive of the now defunct solicitors' firm of Hobourn of Woburn. The first document in the packet is a mortgage of the Feathers by Mathew Disney in 1714 [HN2/PoF1]. In 1723 the public house was conveyed by Disney's daughter, Mary Granger and her husband John to Peter Harding, who owned a number of other inns in the town [HN2/PoF3-4]. Harding sold the inn to Mark Fountaine the following year [HN2/PoF7-8] and Fountaine to Thomas Walker in 1728 [HN2/PoF12-13]. The pattern of quick acquisitions and sales was maintained when Walker sold the Feathers to William Hewat in 1731 [HN2/PoF14-15]. Hewat held on to it for over twenty years before selling to Francis Blunt in 1752 [HN2/PoF18-19]. Blunt mortgaged the inn to John Sibley in 1754 [HN2/Pof20] and leased it to James Clarke four years later for nine years at a rent of £21 per annum [HN2/PoF21].

In 1960 Bedfordshire Historical Records Society published a volume, its fortieth, dedicated to diaries. County Archivist Joyce Godber edited and published the diary of Leighton Buzzard Justice of the Peace John Salusbury (1713-1787) written between the years 1757 and 1759. He mentions the Plume of Feathers just once when he hired as a servant "Thomas Chamberlain, a servant of Mr. Uthwater and son of Chamberlain who kept the Plume of Feathers in this town", clearly the Thomas Chamberlin or Chamberlaine known to have been at the public house in 1747.

In 1764 Richard and Robert Sibley, sons of John, bought a case in Chancery against Francis Blunt for non-payment of mortgage, then, after his death, his son Francis resulting in the equity of redemption being foreclosed in 1767 meaning that the Sibleys now owned the inn [HN2/PoF28]. The Feathers had now become a leasehold property and in 1788 it was assigned by Richard Sibley to Mary Clark [HN2/PoF29].

In the Northampton Mercury of 19th January 1793 licensee of the Plume of Feathers (the first time it is so named), Mary Clarke, subscribed to a resolution of Leighton Buzzard publicans banning "seditious and disaffected persons" from their houses. This presumably was in reaction to the events across the Channel in France (four days previously King Louis XVI had been sentenced to death and two days later he went to the guillotine). In 1798 Mary devised Plume of Feathers to her eldest son James in her will, which was proved in 1799 [HN2/PoF30].

James Clark devised the public house in his will of 1829 [HN2/PoF34 and PLBP/W1830/48] to his sons Jeremy and Gregory Odell Clarke in trust for sale; the will was proved in 1830. The Clarkes duly sold the public house to George Young in 1833 [HN2/PoF33].

The Plume of Feathers about 1950 [WB/Green4/5/LB/PF2]

In October 1840 the Farmers' & General Fire & Life Insurance Loan and Annuity Company insured the Plume of Feathers (brick and stud built and tiled) for £550 as well as the following buildings:

• the adjoining brewhouse for £30;
• the adjoining ostler's house, coal and wood houses for £40;
• two adjoining stables for £45;
• the stable adjoining other the stables for £25;
• the chaisehouse adjoining the stable for £20;
• the chaff house and small stable adjoining the chaisehouse for £20;
• the stable for three horses with a loft over for £20;
• two stables with hay loft over under the same roof as the stable for three horses for £40;
• the adjoining stable for £30;
• the adjoining stable for £30;
• the washhouse or granary with lofts over for £50;
• the room adjoining washhouse or granary under the same roof for £100

The premium was £1/1/6 per annum [HN2/PoF41].

History then repeated itself. George Young had mortgaged the Plume of Feathers to Mary Woodman in 18733. In 1840 she assigned the mortgage to various members of the Deverell family of Lewknor [Oxfordshire]. Evidently Young could not pay the instalments because in 1844 the premises were put up for sale by the mortgagees [HN2/PoF42]. The sale was in two lots. Lot 1 was "a free inn called Plume of Feathers, Corn Market, Leighton Buzzard with extensive frontage, with 2 parlors, convenient bar and tap-room, two kitchens and a cellar, and nine comfortable chambers; a detached market or assembly-room (of large dimensions), with corn-office and rooms under an entrance gateway from the street, leading to a long and very convenient yard, in which are a brewhouse and nine stables, with good lofts over; cart and waggon-sheds, warehouses, and other outbuildings, several of which were recently erected at very considerable expense".   Lot 2 was a garden and "close of rich land with other offices and a cartway entrance from the back-lane. The whole is an undivided length of property from the street to the back-lane of upwards of 200 yards; is well supplied with water, and admirably calculated, from its central situation and extent, to carry on a large commercial concern". Both lots were purchased by Charles Ridgway for £1,350.

The Plume of Feathers about 1960 [Z1432/2/2/37]

In his will of 1870 Ridgeway devised the plume of feathers to trustees for sale; the will was proved in 1876 [HN2/PoF44]. The premises was insured in 1889 by Northern Assurance Company for £2,000 with premium of £2/16/9 paid by Henry Whitbread of Bedford, licensed victualler, being £1,000 on "the building of the Hotel, including a range of buildings comprising Dairy, Kitchen, Tap Room, Skittle Alley and Harness Room all under one roof or communicating therewith, situate in Lake Street, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire and known as "The Plume of Feathers"" and £1,000 on "the building situate opposite the above, comprising Dairy, Kitchen, Wash house, Tool House with Billiard Room over, Stabling with loft over and outhouse" [HN2/PoF45]. Ridgeway's trustees leased the place in 1895 to Charles Newton for seven years at £38 per annum [HN2/PoF44], which is where the deeds packet ends.

The site of the Plume of Feathers following demolition [Z50/72/65]

It looks as if Morris and Company (Ampthill) Limited eventually purchased the property  [WB/M/4/2/1-2]. They were taken over by Luton brewer J. W. Green in 1926 [CE5304/3]. In 1952 Page Woodcock, in an article in Volume III of the Bedfordshire Magazine (page 234) noted: "A century old advertisement of this house reads: Fine home-brewed Ale, Old Wines, Good Stabling, Well-aired Beds". In 1954 Green merged with Flowers Breweries and took the latter name, only to be taken over by Whitbread in 1962. The Plume of Feathers was closed in 1970 and demolished in 1979. Today [2009] the very modern Sculptors building stands on the site, together with a building which looks old, but is not. It is the same age as the Sculptors building but seems to have preserved old timbers both in the entrance way and in the gable above.

 
Old timbers at the entrance to 11 Lake Street October 2008

References:

• F209/13-14: marriage settlement: 1683;
• F209/9: conveyance by Mathew Disney to a trustee to dock entail: 1705;
• HN2/PoF1: mortgage: 1714;
• HN2/PoF3-4: conveyance: 1723;
• HN2/PoF7-8: conveyance: 1724
• HN2/PoF12-13: conveyance: 1728;
• HN2/PoF14-15: conveyance: 1731;
• HN2/PoF18-19: conveyance: 1752;
• HN2/PoF21: lease: 1756;
• HN2/PoF28: summary case in chancery: 1764-1767;
• HN2/PoF29: Feathers Inn assigned: 1788;
• Northampton Mercury: resolution of Leighton Buzzard publicans banning "seditious and disaffected persons" from their houses: 19 Jan 1793;
• HN2/PoF30: will of Mary Clark: 1798, proved 1799;
• CLP13: Register of alehouse licences: 1822-1828;
• HN2/PoF34 and PLBP/W1830/48: will of James Clarke: 1829, proved 1830;
• HN2/PoF33: Plume of Feathers assigned: 1833;
• HN2/PoF41: fire insurance policy on Plume of Feathers: 1840;
• HN2/PoF42: sale particulars of Plume of Feathers: 1844;
• HN2/PoF43: assignment of Plume of Feathers: 1844;
• BO652: auction sale held at Plume of Feathers: 1848;
• PSLB4/1: Register of Alehouse Licences - Leighton Buzzard Petty Sessional Division: c.1860s-1949;
• PSLB4/3: Register of Alehouse Licences - Leighton Buzzard Petty Sessional Division: c.1860s-1956;
• BML10/42/6: auction sale held at Plume of Feathers: 1863;
• BML10/67/3: auction sale held at Plume of Feathers: 1865;
• BML10/30/5: auction sale held at Plume of Feathers: 1870;
• HN2/PoF44: abstracted will of Charles Ridgway: 1870, proved 1876;
• HN2/PoF45: fire insurance policy on Plume of Feathers: 1889;
• HN2/PoF44: abstracted agreement regarding right of way through a door and over Plume of Feathers yard: 1890;
• HN2/PoF44: abstracted lease: 1895;
• HN1/20-1-3: position shown on annotated Ordnance Survey maps compiled for licensing purposes: early 20th century;
• WB/Green4/5/LB/PF1: photograph: 1920s;
• PSLB4/2: Register of Alehouse Licences - Leighton Buzzard Petty Sessional Division: 1922-1948;
• WB/M/4/2/2: particulars of Morris & Company (Ampthill) Limited licensed premises: 1926;
• WB/M/4/2/1: list of Morris & Company (Ampthill) Limited licensed properties: c.1926;
• CE5304/3: conveyance: 1926;
• WB/Green4/2/4: certificate of title of J.W.Green Limited to licensed properties: 1936-1954;
• WB/Green6/4/1: trade analysis ledger: 1936-1947;
• WB/Green4/2/9: schedule of J.W.Green Limited deeds and documents: c.1949;
• WB/Green4/2/10: schedule of J.W.Green Limited deeds and documents: c.1949;
• WB/Green4/5/LB/PF2-3: photographs: 1950s;
• WB/W4/5/Neg1: negatives: 1950s-1960s;
• WB/Green4/2/17: J.W.Green Limited trust deed: 1952-1972;
• WB/Green4/2/16: letter as to J.W.Green titles to licensed premises: 1952;
• WB/Green4/2/5: list of J.W.Green licensed premises: c.1952;
• WB/Green4/2/19: various loose schedules of J.W.Green Limited deeds and documents: c.1954

 
Site of the Corn Exchange and Plume of Feathers October 2008

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:

1714: Thomas Goodwin;
1705: John Hinton;
Thomas Brice;
1721: John Conn;
1724: John George;
1747: Thomas Chamberlin or Chamberlaine;
1752: Mary Wright;
1752: Francis Blunt;
1756: James Clark(e);
1785: Mary Clark(e);
1799 : James Clark(e);
1833: George Young;
1876: Thomas Hopkins;
1878: William Coggan;
1885: William Davis;
1886: Joseph Bickford;
1895: Charles Newton;
1902: Reginald Augustus Boulton;
1902: George Proctor;
1902: John Robinson;
1903: Thomas Jacker;
1905: James Crafts;
1906: Herbert Turner;
1918: Horace Ernest Blake;
1919: Bertram Studley;
1931: Arthur Joseph Cheyney;
1933: Charles Edward Husson;
1941: Reginald W. Hayball;
1952: Rupert Roy Waters;
1954: Benjamin Edge Wrathall;
1956: Henry George Harrold;
1963: David Brown Taylor;
1970: George Albert Reed
Public house closed 1970