The Royal Oak Beerhouse Seddington

6 High Road Seddington - the former Royal Oak March 2010

The Royal Oak Beerhouse: 6 High Road, Seddington [also the Oak]

The countywide register of alehouse licences of 1876, when the Royal Oak, sometimes, also simply known as the Oak,  was owned by Simpson & Company of Baldock [Hertfordshire] states that the building was first licensed in 1836. Because the house was owned by Simpson & Company the deeds are with Hertfordshire Archives service – they extend from 1832 to 1873.

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 Royal Oak [DV1/C90/101] found it still owned by Simpson & Company and occupied by Thomas William Jeeves who paid rent of £13 per annum, set in 1921. This rent included 3 roods of land.

The beerhouse itself stood in less than a rood of land and the brick and slate premises comprised a parlour, kitchen, tap room and cellar with three bedrooms and a boxroom above. A wood and tiled barn and stable and a brick and slate washhouse stood outside.

Trade was about twenty seven gallons of mild per week – “no bitter kept”. The beerhouse also sold about a dozen bottles per week. Takings were about £5 per week. The Biggleswade area licensing register [PSBW8/2] states that the beerhouse closed on 16th June 1961 having never taken a full licence to become a public house. The property is now a private house.

References:

• CRT110/112: deeds at Hertfordshire Archives Service: 1832-1873;
• 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;
• GK307/26: site plan: c. 1898;
• 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.

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

1872-1873: Charlotte Barringer;
1873-1908: James Young;
1908-1920: Ellen Young;
1924-1928: Thomas Jeeves;
1931 - 1940: Thomas William Jeeves;
1957-1961: Herbert Charles Housden.
Beerhouse closed on 16th June 1961.