The pubs of Bird in Hand and Wycombe’s west end

This post is based on an article published in the Bucks Free Press on 20 January 2023. It has been updated periodically as new information and images have come to light.

Until the late 19th century the hamlet of Bird in Hand was separated from Wycombe by cornfields. A tangle of cottages and workshops along West Wycombe Road from modern Victoria Street to Oakridge Road and south to the river Wye, it was a thriving independent community of its own. Lord’s Mill, a Sunday school and four pubs completed the settlement.

The first of these pubs was the Bird in Hand itself, which was open by at least 1774 (but see my footnote at the end of this post), its owners being Samuel Wells and others who had a brewery in Bull Lane, Wycombe. This brewery business developed into Wheeler & Co by the mid-19th century.  

The Bird in Hand nearest the camera, the White Horse in the middle distance and the former Pine Apple in the far distance on the corner of Oakridge Road c1960 (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by High Wycombe Library)

The Bird in Hand was joined by several more pubs in the 1830s and 40s: the Traveller’s Friend, Pine Apple, Blue Flag, Duke of Wellington and Le Despencer’s Arms. These last three were short-lived. The Blue Flag was a beerhouse on the Wycombe side of the Bird in Hand pub opened after the Beerhouse Act of 1830 came into force in October of that year. Owned by the Misses Terry in 1838 it closed in 1840, the same year the Duke of Wellington opened. This new pub was owned by Wethered’s of Marlow who clearly saw a market for another beerhouse as they already had two dwelling houses available. After the Duke of Wellington ceased trading in 1851 Wethered’s continued to own the houses until well into the century. The Le Despencer’s Arms beerhouse opened in 1841. Owned by Robert Pilkin the first landlord was Thomas Joynson, who had left by the following year. Joynson had, until 1835, owned the Lord Le De Spencer’s Arms [sic] on Downley Common. He was an undischarged bankrupt and his Downley pub was sold to pay his debts. The West Wycombe Road beerhouse lasted only until 1843, with a different landlord each year. The Traveller’s Friend is likely to have begun as a beerhouse opened after the Beerhouse Act of 1830 came into force. It was trading by 1838 when owned by William Treacher and leased by Weller’s brewery of Amersham. It had changed its name to the White Horse by 1843. Weller’s bought the pub from Treacher in 1847. It had become a fully-licensed public house by 1872.  

The White Horse in 1930 just after Benskins had taken ownership (courtesy of Mark Page)

The Pine Apple, on the West Wycombe parish side of Oakridge Road, was trading by 1840 and, as a beerhouse, would have opened after October 1830.

The opening of five pubs in 10 years illustrates the explosion of drinking places after the 1830 Beer Act liberalised the licensing system, taking away from magistrates’ control of houses that sold only beer. This period also saw expansion of the temperance movement in Britain. Perhaps Henry Keen’s concern for local children in the early 1850s had some temperance motive? Henry Keen was a chairmaker at Bird in Hand. Other local businessmen shared Keen’s concerns. Sir George Dashwood donated land a few doors down from the Pine Apple for a Sunday school in 1859. A ‘leader’ at the school was Thomas Lucas, who owned the Pine Apple. He ran the Frogmoor Brewery with his father Richard and his brother Benjamin until retiring in 1888 aged 71. His 1903 obituary in the South Bucks Standard says he ‘had no very great predilection for the brewery trade.’ Lucas had been a Quaker in his early years. Another leader was a member of the Wheeler brewing family, Henry Stevens Wheeler. Though not a brewer himself (he owned Wycombe Marsh Paper Mills) Wheeler had been instrumental in the establishment of St Anne’s Church at Wycombe Marsh. Finally, the former Blue Flag reopened in late 1854 or early 1855, now called the King’s Head and owned by James Westfield. Westfield later leased the pub to James Parsons’ Lion brewery of Princes Risborough in 1866, selling it to Wethered’s 10 years later. Wycombe expands westward From the 1870s the Borough of Wycombe extended west from Bridge Street towards the border with West Wycombe at Oakmead. Wheeler’s and Leadbetter & Bird (successors to Lucas) began to press for new public house licences. In October 1875 Wheeler’s applied for a licence for a new house in Brook St offering to close the Chairmakers' Arms beerhouse in Hobbs Lane, which was roughly where Matalan is today. They also applied for a house in Oakmead (presumably the Queen), which was turned down. It took another two years to get a full licence for the utilitarian, no-nonsense, new Chairmakers' Arms while only an ‘off’ licence was granted for the more homely Queen in Victoria Street. The Queen finally received a full licence in October 1881.

The Queen in Victoria Street 1968 (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by Bucks Free Press)

The Desborough Arms in Desborough Road (formerly Watery Lane) was built by Wheeler’s and licensed in 1888. Wheeler’s gave up the licence of the Seven Stars at 5 Easton Street to get one for their new pub. It had a curious design that can still be made out today, the main building being back off the road with a single-story entrance lobby to the road that looks like an afterthought. 

The Desborough Arms (right) in 1969 (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by Bucks Free Press)

The last of the nineteenth century’s new west end pubs was the Saracen’s Head. In 1895, the old Saracen’s Head in Frogmoor, owned by Leadbetter & Bird and run by the wonderfully-named Theophilus Trott, was to be sold and the licence removed to a new house in Green Street designed by Arthur Vernon. The 1890s was a golden age of pub building and it may have been Vernon’s design – almost a hotel with seven bedrooms costing £1000 to build – that persuaded the magistrates to grant the licence. 

The 1895 version of the Saracen’s Head in Green Street on 1 July 1973 (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by Bucks Free Press)

One curiosity remains. In August 1897, Wheeler’s applied for a licence for a new pub on the corner of Desborough Avenue and Baker Street. The magistrates refused the licence on the grounds that there were too many pubs nearby and all were owned by Wheeler’s. The building was erected as planned; it was never licensed and is now Victoria Pharmacy.

Decline and closure

There’s not much evidence that many west end pubs offered counter-attractions such as games or entertainment that took peoples’ minds off drinking. However, most pubs had a Club Room and many a Slate Club for Christmas savings. At the Pine Apple’s 1912 Slate Club smoking concert (a Victorian live music event for men) in the Club Room ‘some capital songs were rendered’ such as Break the news to mother, Don’t go down in the mine and Tickle me, Timothy.

What many west end pubs had was continuity of tenants – the Biggs family at the Pine Apple, Cross at the King’s Head, Thomas at the Saracen’s Head, Markham at the Queen, Allsop at the Desborough Arms and Cox and Judge at the Chairmaker’s.

The Wycombe Free Church Council objected to the Pine Apple’s 1919 licence renewal on the grounds the house was ‘not required to meet the necessities of the public’. Mrs Biggs, landlady since 1856, presented a supportive petition signed by 120 people, while her solicitor argued that this solidly working-class establishment served over 300 houses and 12 factories. Mrs Biggs got her licence for another year and every year after that until she died in 1925 aged 89.

The Wycombe Free Church Council objected to the Pine Apple’s 1919 licence renewal on the grounds the house was ‘not required to meet the necessities of the public’. Mrs Biggs, landlady since 1856, presented a supportive petition signed by 120 people, while her solicitor argued that this solidly working-class establishment served over 300 houses and 12 factories. Mrs Biggs got her licence for another year and every year after that until she died in 1925 aged 89.

Eventually, in 1933, the licence was given up so that the Half Moon in Oxford Street could be relocated to a new building in Dashwood Avenue. To get the magistrates to agree to this removal Simonds Brewery (the successors to Wheeler’s) sacrificed the Pine Apple. The de-licensed property was sold at auction early in 1934 for £680. It became a cafe and is now a private house. 

The Pine Apple c1870 with the redoubtable landlady Mrs Biggs in black hat sitting centre (courtesy of Roger Mills and pubshistory.com)

The King’s Head’s licence was also under threat in 1933. The magistrates heard that like the other four pubs being considered for closure the King’s Head’s trade was in decline – the depression was taking its toll. Among the barristers appearing for Mr Cross (the tenant) and Wethered’s (the owning brewery) was a Mr W A Fearnley-Whittingstall, an ancestor of the River Cottage chef, and, more interestingly, the son of Alice Wethered.

The pub was small and Wethered’s planned to spend £1000 extending and modernising it having bought three cottages next door for £850. Wheeler’s also put in plans to rebuild the Bird in Hand – a decision was expected once a decision on the King’s Head’s future had been made. The magistrates renewed the licence perhaps in acknowledgement that the Cross family had run the pub without blemish for 40 years.

At the 1934 licensing meeting the King’s Head’s licence was refused. The magistrates and owners could not agree on the compensation that should be paid and the Inland Revenue was required to determine an amount of £3720, the pub finally closing in June 1935. By this time both the Bird in Hand (by now a Simonds pub) and the White Horse (owned by Benskins) had been rebuilt in typical inter-war style.

The former King’s Head at Bird in Hand (the black and white building) c1960 (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by High Wycombe Library)

The new Chairmakers’ Arms barely made it to its eightieth birthday before it was demolished in 1958, along with property around Westbourne and Brook streets. The Courage-owned Saracen’s Head was sold to Charrington in 1982 and closed in 1998; it is now student accommodation. The Queen was also a Courage house sold, this time to Fullers, before closing in 2000; it is now private housing. The Desborough Arms closed in 2001 and is now a fast-food restaurant. The King’s Head building has made way for flats.

The ‘new’ Chairmaker’s Arms shortly before demolition in 1958 (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by High Wycombe Library)

At the end of 2023 the White Horse closed having been under threat for many years. It had been a music venue in recent years, though it proudly announced itself as ‘one of Britain’s oldest strip pubs’. A bible was found in the White Horse after a show in 2022. Despite the landlord notifying the Bucks Free Press and offering to keep it safe for the owner it’s not clear if it was ever claimed. I wonder what Jane Biggs and Henry Keen would have thought?

The White Horse not long before closure in 2023 (courtesy of the Bucks Free Press)

Footnote - the early Bird in Hand Mike Brown in his ABC: A Brewers’ Compendium - A Directory of Buckinghamshire Brewers tells us that Samuel Wells, on his marriage to Mary King in 1756, was given six inns by his new wife’s father, Issac King, including the Bird in Hand. No record of the Bird in Hand appears in Buckinghamshire’s register of recognisances returned annually to the Clerk of the Peace until 1781. These recognisances were a record of licences granted to alehouse keepers as at September of each year that Clerks were required to record from 1753 until 1828. The licensee of the Bird in Hand in 1781 was Anthony Chalk. He had been the licensee of the Woolpack in Wycombe’s Oxford Street since at least 1770. April 1774 saw William Boddy get a licence for a second Woolpack, while by September 1776 a Mr Armistead is at one Woolpack and Chalk at the other – records for 1775 are missing as are records for 1777 to 1780. It’s not unusual for a place to have pubs with the same name. It’s possible that Chalk moved to the newly-opened Bird in Hand in 1774 and took his Woolpack sign with him, the pub being renamed sometime between 1777 and 1781.

Sources

SWOP (Sharing Wycombe’s Old Photographs) Bucks Free Press and other local newspapers sourced through The British Newspaper Archive Buckinghamshire Archives for licensing records, property deeds and poor rate assessments Pubhistory.com for photos and records of licensees