The Royal Oak Beerhouse Upper Caldecote

former Royal Oak Jul 2007

The Royal Oak Beerhouse, Biggleswade Road, Upper Caldecote

Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service has no material on this beerhouse other than mentions of beer sellers in directories and entries in various registers of licensed premises. This is because the property was owned by Baldock brewers Simpson & Company and the deeds are held by Hertfordshire Archives Service. The countywide licensing register of 1876 states that the house was first licensed in 1850, by which time it was already owned by Simpson & Company.

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. Upper Caldecote was assessed in 1927 and the valuer visiting the the Royal Oak [DV1/C/5/45] found that it comprised: a living room; a kitchen; a tap room; a parlour; a cellar; four bedrooms; a washhouse and earth closet and a brick and slate stable and cart shed. Trade was one barrel of beer and four dozen bottles of beer per week; as to takings: "can't say". The beerhouse closed at some time between this and 1957 when it is omitted from a register of licensed premises held by Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service [PSBW8/2].

References

• HF143/1: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1872-1873;
• CRT110/102: list of deeds of Simpson of Baldock held at Hertfordshire Record Office: 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;
• PSBW8/2: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1956-1972;
• P142/28/8/3: photograph: 1985.

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

1853-1882: William Lovell;
1882-1908: Arthur Woodward;
1908-1911: James William Woodward;
1911-1940: Horace Frederick Maudlin.