The Rising Sun Public House Potton

The Rising Sun Public House: 11 Everton Road, Potton

The Rising Sun March 2007

The countywide licensing register of 1876 tells us that the Rising Sun was first licensed, as a beerhouse, in 1836. In 1876 the owner was Elizabeth Peacock. By the time of the countywide register of 1891 the owner was Oswell Mears.

The countywide register of 1903 gives the new owner as Royston [Hertfordshire] brewery Phillips and Company. The property was in good repair and was 26 yards from the nearest licensed premises; it had two front and two back doors. Licensee Susan Arnold was convicted of permitting drunkenness on 13th January 1909 and was fined £1 with 7/6 costs. She left the business later that year.

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 Rising Sun [DV1/C10/63] found that the owner was still Phillips and Company. The beerhouse contained three bedrooms, a parlour, a sitting room, a tap room, a kitchen and a cellar, he noted that trade was "very small" detailing that the beerhouse sold one and a half to two barrels per week in summer and about two dozen bottles per week. He also noted: "Good position near housing scheme".

In 1949 Luton brewer J. W. Green took over Phillips and Company. The Rising Sun became a fully-licensed public house on 11th March 1959. J. W. Green merged with Midlands brewer Flowers in 1954 and the new firm adopted the Flowers name but was taken over by Whitbread in 1962. In 2001 Whitbread divested itself of all its brewing and public house interests. However, the Rising Sun remains a public house at the time of writing [2013] and is now a free house.

The Rising Sun in March 2007

References:

• P64/5/3/386: bill for ale for the ringers: 1841;
• HF143/1: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1872-1873;
• HF143/2: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1874-1877;
• HF147/3/695: summons against licensee for deficient pint and gill measures: 1875;
• 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;
• PSBW8/2: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1956-1972;
• PSBW8/3: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade and North Bedfordshire Petty Sessional Divisions: 1976-1980.

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

1854: Charles Peacock;
1862-1869: Jabez Clark;
1872-1878: Eliza Peacock;
1878-1880: Charles Peacock
1880-1898: Thomas Arnold;
1898-1909: Susan Arnold;
1909-1914: Frederick Arnold;
1920-1940: Mrs. Eva Anna Arnold;
1957-1958: Albert Edward Newell;
1958-1959: Robert Carruthers Young;
1959-1961: Ronald George Tilley;
1961-1967: Wilfred Michael Burns;
1968: Kathleen Florence Burns (Kefford from 1970);
1976-1977: George Thomas Hurrell;
1977-1978: Mark Charles Barney Stevens;
1978: Leslie Gilbert and Ernest Edward Fairfield;
1988-1996: Keith Page and Valerie Pearl Page.