The Plough Beerhouse Old Warden

Plough Beerhouse: Warden Street, Old Warden

Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service has very little information on this beerhouse other than directories and registers of alehouse licences.  The 1847 directory identifies John Barnett's beerhouse as being the Plough at Warden Street and a register of alehouse licences notes its closure in 1877. Sadly there is no evidence as to where in Warden Street the property lay; a plan of 1877 [below please click on the thumbail for a larger picture] is very useful for what the buildings were like but not for the exact location. The plan shows the house "lath and plaster containing two small rooms on ground floor and two bedrooms in very bad repair" measuring 17 feet wide by 20 feet deep. Attached is the tap room 28 feet wide by 9 feet deep "in the very worst state of repair". There are also a "shed covered with felt falling down" measuring 30 feet wide by 14 feet deep, a pantiled barn measuring 17 feet wide by 14 feet deep and a pantiled hovel "in bad repair" 12 feet deep by 9 feet wide. The overall impression is of a property not disimilar to the modern 141 or 142 Warden Street

 
SL5-252 plan of beerhouse

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:

1847-1861: John Barnett;
1864-1871: Sarah Barnett;
1872-1877: Jonah Elms
Beerhouse closed 19 September 1877 "the house was not duly qualified it having been proved that the cottage was not worth more than £3/10/- per annum"

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;
• SL5/252 Plan of beer house in Warden Street 1877