The Swan Beerhouse Riseley

The White House - 99 High Street April 2015

The Swan Beerhouse: 99 High Street, Riseley

The countywide licensing register of 1876 states that the Swan beerhouse was first licensed in 1869, however, this seems only to refer to the licence in its then current form because we know that in 1842 a house at Riseley used for selling beer and called the Swan, with a butcher's shop attached, was conveyed by Thomas Farrer to Stephen Wiles [GK157/2]. Previous occupants had been Peter Warren then John Mayes, though not necessarily as beer sellers; the Swan is not listed in the countywide lists of licensed premises which date from 1822 to 1828. On Wiles' death his executors conveyed the Swan to Buckden [Huntingdonshire] brewers William and Henry Bowyer in 1854 [GK157/3]. In 1873 William Bowyer conveyed the Swan and other licensed premises to Frederick Thomas Young of Bedford [GK157/8].

In 1874 Young took William Pritzler Newland into partnership. Two years later Newland bought his partner out. In 1890 Newland went into partnership with Susan, widow of another Bedford brewer, William Joseph Nash, as Newland and Nash. In 1922 the company was taken over by Biggleswade brewers Wells and Winch.

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 property [DV1/C217/20] found that the tenant, Mrs Ellen Kastelleiner, paid rent ("absurd") of £8 per annum. The Swan comprised a tap room, parlour, scullery and cellar with three bedrooms upstairs. Trade consisted of eighteen gallons of beer on average per week through the year. Bottled beers ales were "negligible". A small brick and tiled bakehouse and a wood store with a loft over stood outside along with an old stable, a coal barn and two WCs.

At soe point after the Second World War the Swan closed, becoming a private house, which it was in August 1983 when English Heritage listed it as Grade II, of special interest. The house dates from the 18th century and is built of colour-washed roughcast over a timber frame, with a 20th century machine tiled roof. It comprises two storeys and has a single storey addition at the rear with a 20th century lean-to garage at the south-west gable end.

Sources:

• GK157/2: conveyance: 1842;
• GK157/3: conveyance: 1854;
• GK157/8: conveyance: 1873;
• PSS3/1: Register of Alehouse Licences - Sharnbrook Petty Sessional Division: c.1901;
• PSS3/2: Register of Alehouse Licences - Sharnbrook Petty Sessional Division: c.1903;
• PSS3/3: Register of Alehouse Licences - Sharnbrook Petty Sessional Division: 1904-1930
• PSBW8/4: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade and North Bedfordshire Petty Sessional Divisions: c.1957-1995
• Z53/96/13: photograph: 1962;
• 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: entries in italics refer to licensees where either beginning or end, or both, dates are not known:

1854: Thomas Dickens;
1864-1876: William Dunmore;
1885-1890: Samuel Barker;
1891-1914: Emma Barker;
1920-1930: Ellen Kasteleiner;
1930-1940: George Stevens.