Old Beerhouse: Biggleswade Road, Upper Caldecote

 
Old Beerhouse Jul 2007

Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service does not have much in the way of evidence for this beerhouse except for directories and references in licensing registers. The countywide licensing register of 1876 states that the beerhouse run by Reuven Wheatley was first licensed in 1835.

The Old Beerhouse was owned by Wells & Winch, the Biggleswade brewers at least as early as 1876. 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. northill was assessed in 1927 and the valuer visiting The Old Beerhouse [DV1/C/5/72] found that it comprised: a parlour; a living room; a kitchen; a taproom; a "very small" bar; a cellar; two bedrooms; two garrets; an earth closet and washhouse. Trade was very small at half a barrel and two dozen bottles per week; as to takings the licensee's wife "can't say", she also "doesn't know rent ?£5/10/- per quarterr". All in all it was a "poor looking place".

The beerhouse became a fully licensed public house at some time between its directory entry in 1936 and that in 1940. It subsequently closed at some point between 1940 and 1959 as it is omitted from the licensing register held by Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service beginning in that year. The property is now [2007] a private house and decidedly not a poor looking place. 

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;
• Z1039/28: lease of beerhouse from Wells & Winch to James Odell: 1923.
  

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

1861-1876: Reuben Wheatley;
1876-1878: Mary Wheatley;
1878-1886: James Nottingham;
1886-1904: Joseph Nottingham;
1904-1907: William Woodward;
1907-1910: William Nottingham;
1910-1915: William Wheatley;
1923-1936: James Odell;
1940: Percy Odell