The Bell Inn Shefford

Bell Inn: Shefford

This public house is known only from a few deeds in the Wade and Jackson archive held by Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service. It was still an inn in 1708 when William Stevens, baker used it as security for a further advance from Sarah Gregory of St.Albans. By 1737, however, when William Stevens, innholder, sold it to John Harris of Shefford, grocer and chandler, it was described as: "the messuage in Shefford where William, father of William Stevens dwelt, late called the Bell, now several tenements in occupation of William Stevens, Thomas Pateman, Elizabeth Poulton, Thomas Crawley, Nicholas Glenister and John Freeman". Such a description suggests that the Bell had been a large inn. Research undertaken by a user of the service indicates that it may have stood between the Black Swan and the church.

Sources:

• WJ296: further charge borrowed by William Stevens of Shefford, baker from Sarah Gregory, secured on land including Bell Inn: 1708;
• WJ385: former Bell conveyed by William Stevens, innholder to John Harris of Shefford, grocer and chandler: 1737