The Horse and Jockey Public House Potton

The Horse and Jockey Public House: 39 King Street, Potton

39 King Street March 2007

The countywide licensing register of 1876 states that this beerhouse was first licensed in 1844, its owner in 1876 was brewer Edward K. Fordham of Ashwell [Hertfordshire]. In 1887 landlord Henry Jennings was convicted of selling beer during prohibited hours on 24th August. He was fined £1 with 8/6 costs [HF143/4].

The countywide licensing register of 1891 notes that the Horse and Jockey was owned by W. A. Fordham of Ashwell and that it was tied to his brewery. The register of 1903 gives the owner as Fordham and Company and stated that the premises required repairs. The Horse and Jockey was twenty yards from the nearest licensed premises (the Red Cow) and had one front and two back doors.

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. Potton, like most of the county was assessed in 1927. The valuer visiting the Horse and Jockey [DV1/C12/1] found it was a: "very good modernized building" consisting of three bedrooms upstairs with a tap room, a parlour and a kitchen below; outside was a two stall stable with a loft over. The business sold one to one and a half barrels of mild and half a barrel of bitter per week with "very little bottled" trade.

Fordham and Company was taken over by J. W. Green Limited of Luton in 1952, and the beerhouse became a fully licensed public house on 6th February 1953. J. W. Green merged with Flowers Breweries from the Midlands and adopted the latter name in 1954. Whitbread bought out Flowers in 1962. The Horse and Jockey closed for the last time in 1971 and is now a private house.

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;
• X704/123: Thrift Club: 1950s;
• PSBW8/2: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1956-1972

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

1872-1876: John Seamer;
1876-1880: Alfred Hill;
1880-1885: Charles Peacock;
1885-1886: Thomas Dazley;
1886-1892: Henry Jennings;
1892-1899: Edward Doughty;
1899-1900: George Thake;
1900: Robert Bye;
1900-1907: Charles Titchmarsh;
1907-1928: Tom Pike;
1931-1936: William Alfred Papworth;
1940: Horace Wilfred Petchey;
1957-1971: Leslie Alwyn Dennis;
1971: Frank Ronald Raines.
Public house closed 1971.