The Red Lion Public House Meppershall

The countywide licensing register of 1876 states that there was a beerhouse without a sign in Meppershall, owned by William Lucas of Hitchin [Hertfordshire], brewer and tenanted by Elizabeth Bluffield. The property was first licensed in 1842. The countywide register of 1891 makes it clear that the owner was, in fact, Philip Lincoln of Meppershall and that Lucas leased it from him.

The beerhouse is mentioned in directories up to 1920 but no corresponding property appears in the Kelly's Directory for 1924 suggesting that it closed between these two dates. The licensing registers show that it acquired its name of Red Lion quite late, around the time Henry Faulkner took the licence over from Isaac Harris.

The property stood in the High Street and seems to have been on the site of today's Number 44, at least that is the location shown on the Domesday Rating Valuation map of 1910 [DBV1/62 and DBV3/244]. 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 former beerhouse, which was the end of a terrace of four properties [DV1/C160/33], noted that it was still occupied by Henry Faulkner but the owner was now A Russell, rent was £7 per annum.

The property comprised two parlours (one had presumably been the public parlour of the beerhouse), a kitchen and scullery with three bedrooms above. Outside stood a barn and an earth closet shared with the other three houses in the terrace. Water came from a pump. The valuer commented: "Dreadful at Back". 

References:

•  HF143/1: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1872-1873;
•  HF143/2: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1874-1877;
•  HF143/3: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1878-1881;
•  HF143/4: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1882-1890;
•  HF143/5: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1891-1900;
•  HF143/6: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1900-1914;
•  PSBW8/1: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1903-1915.

Licensees: note that this is not a complete list and that dates in italics are not necessarily beginning or end dates, merely the first/last date which can be confirmed from sources such as directories and deeds: 

1872-1880: Elizabeth Bluffield;
1880-1891: William Izzard;
1891-1909: Isaac Harris;
1909-1920: Henry Faulkner

Beerhouse closed c. 1920