The Wait for the Waggon Public House Wyboston

Wait for the Waggon about 1925 [WL800/5]

The Wait for the Waggon Public House: 13 Great North Road, Wyboston 

The Wait for the Waggon is now a public house but was previously a beerhouse. The countywide licensing register for 1876 lists the beerhouse, owned by Alfred Mosley of Leeds [Yorkshire] and notes that it was first licensed in 1840. The countywide register for 1891 notes G. F. Anstee as the owner.

The countywide register of 1903 records Bedford brewer Charles Wells as the owner. The register comments: "good, fairly clean, apparently sanitary". A date stone of 1896 on the property shows that it was either rebuilt, or the previous property pulled down and today's propery built on the site at that date by Wells. The public house continues in business at the time of writing [March 2007] though no longer owned by Charles Wells, being a free house.

date stone on the Wait for the Waggon photographed in March 2007

The Wait for the Waggon was valued in 1927 under the 1925 Rating Valuation Act, at which time the valuer recorded a brick and slate building with a tap room ("fair"), parlour ("small"), wash house, kitchen, cellar and three bedrooms. Trade was good at 18 gallons of beer and 4-6 dozen bottles of beer per week as well as 5/- worth of tobacco. Outside the property had 2.4 acres of arable with a two bay cart shed, barn, loose box and piggery. At some point following this the beerhouse became a public house.

Wait for the Waggon in March 2007

References:

• PSB9/1: register of licences: c.1903-1935;
• WL800/5 p.28: photograph: c.1925;
• WL801/107: negative of above: c.1925;
• PSB9/2: register of licenses: c.1955-1995;
• RDBP6/62/501: proposed alterations and additions: 1962;
• WL722/4: "Pint Pot" in-house magazine of Charles Wells with photograph of public house: 1971;
• PSBW8/3: register of licences: 1976-1980 .

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

1876-1877: William Brace;
1891-1906: Edward Parren;
1906-1915: Francis Green;
1915-1940: Sidney Brace;
1978: John Patrick Halliday Thompson
1995: John Anthony Carter and Timothy Simon Churchman;
1995: Keith Alan Roberts and Timothy Simon Churchman