Loudwater’s lost pubs, and hopes for a revival

This is an edited and updated version of an article published in the Bucks Free Press on 1 December 2023. This post was last updated on 3 March 2026 to include new information about the ownership of the Halfway House. There is also new information about the site of the Star beerhouse.

At the time of writing, Loudwater has just one functioning pub, the Papermill, which is attached to the Premier Inn, off London Road. But we can trace a further seven pubs in the village that have closed over the last 70 years, as well as two beerhouses existing in the first half of the 19th century.

The Crown, on the corner of London Road and Station Road, was probably the first pub in Loudwater, dating to at least 1753 when licensing records were first kept. The building is known to have existed in 1724 when owned by the Steevens family. It briefly changed its name to the Fleur de Lis between 1768 and c1780 while in the hands of long-standing licensees, the Boddy family. 

Leased by Biddle & Wheeler (a forerunner of Wheeler’s brewery of Wycombe) since at least 1815 it was bought by Wheeler’s in 1906 when the pub consisted of a parlour, tap room, good sized back hall, kitchen, half sunk cellar, three bedrooms, stable and garden. According to the sale particulars it had been an alehouse since 1500.

The Crown looking towards London c1900 (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by Wycombe Museum)

By the time it was de-licensed and closed in 1954 it was owned by Simonds of Reading. Being an alehouse meant it had a full licence that could be transferred on closure to a beerhouse somewhere else should the licensing magistrates agree. The surrendered full licence of the Crown was transferred to the Raven beerhouse (now the Mowchak Restaurant & Bar) in Stokenchurch. The old Crown is now called Crown House.

The Beech Tree at Knaves Beech, on the south side of the London Road pedestrian crossing at Tesco, had opened by 1838 when it appears in the area’s first surviving poor rate records as a beerhouse owned by William Williams of Wooburn. William’s brother Thomas established the Royal Stag Brewery of Wooburn Green in the 1830s, which owned the pub until the brewery was acquired by Wethered’s of Marlow in 1927.  

Wethered’s were keen, like many brewers, to acquire land and property close to their pubs to enable expansion or a move to a new site. Adjoining cottages and a cottage on the other side of the road were offered to them in 1931 though they didn’t make an offer to buy until 1936. By 1945 the pub had declined into a state of disrepair such that a good deal of work was needed.

The Beech Tree looking towards London c1905 (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by Bucks Free Press)

It’s surprising that Wethered’s didn’t pull down the old pub and other buildings they owned at Knaves Beech to build a new Beech Tree. The 1930s saw many such improvement projects of this kind. Perhaps the reason is that in 1937 they had bought land at Downley Pitch with a view to opening a pub there. By the end of the war they started thinking again about the new pub, which would mean surrendering at least one existing licence. The licensing magistrates wanted the brewery to surrender the Beech Tree – Wethered’s agreed so long as they were given permission to rebuild the Bricklayers' Arms (see Derehams Inn below), which permission was presumably refused as the Beech Tree remained open for another 20 years.

In 1967 Wethered’s, after 30 years of fruitless applications, persuaded the licensing magistrates to approve a licence for a new pub in Downley to be called the Downley Donkey. The price was the licence of the Beech Tree, which was selling only 19 barrels of beer a year when it closed. There is no trace of it now, the whole area having been redeveloped for Tesco.

The White Blackbird, on London Road near the junction with Birfield Road, was originally called the Oxford Arms and, confusingly, was known by both names at times. It was open by 1753 and by 1770 it was owned by John Barton who had a brewery at Wycombe Marsh. It was acquired by what became Wheeler’s brewery in 1794. 

The horse bus service to West Wycombe started from the pub in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Simonds of Reading, who bought Wheeler’s in 1930, rebuilt the pub in 1936. Later it became a Courage house before ownership passed to pub company, Inntrepreneur.  It closed in 1998. Finally, it was demolished to make way for Blackbird Mews in 2004. 

The White Blackbird c1900 with the Wycombe horse bus (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by High Wycombe Society)

The White Blackbird in 1995 (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by Bucks Free Press)

The Papermakers’ Arms on Kingsmead Road, close to today’s Holly Place, was a beerhouse built and owned by Charles Hunt in 1869. It was leased by Wethered’s until, by 1899, Wheeler’s had taken ownership. Hunt had also built a terrace of six cottages with the pub – these were demolished in 1958 – though the original building had been replaced by a new, fully-licensed pub in 1938. This was a typical inter-war design by then owner Simonds of Reading. After passing to Morrell’s of Oxford in 1998 the Papermakers’ declined rapidly and closed by 2000, later being demolished and replaced by a terrace of houses called The Fennels.

The 'new' Papermakers' Arms shortly after its 1938 rebuild (courtesy of Raymond Simonds)

The Halfway House got its name because the milestone outside showed it to be half way between London and Oxford. It’s mentioned in a church procession in 1763 when it was called the New Inn, however, it doesn’t appear in licensing records until 1781 and then disappears after 1787. Owned by the Dean and Canons of Windsor as part of the Bassetsbury estate, it was leased by Weller’s Amersham brewery in 1852 before they bought it from the estate for £880 at auction in 1882. For more about pubs in the Bassetsbury estate, see The London Road from Bassetsbury to Pann Mill. The pub’s name was changed to the Halfway House in 1958 by its then owner, Ind Coope. Closing in 2005 it was demolished in 2010 to be replaced by flats.

The Halfway House after closure in 2005 (courtesy of Dennis Troughton)

The Happy Union seems to have got its name from being at the place on the river Wye where the main stream was happily reunited with the back stream. It’s first mentioned in a newspaper report of a break-in in 1836 as an unnamed beerhouse run by Daniel Pymm and owned by the Misses Davies. The Lucas family’s Frogmore Brewery were the leasees in 1864 when Pymm was granted a full licence. Wethered’s acquired the pub in 1884.

The Happy Union c1900 ((courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by Bucks Free Press)

The Happy Union after its 1928 rebuild that cost £2000 (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by Bucks Free Press)

The Happy Union in 2012 (image from pub's redundant website)

The pub now stands empty, awaiting redevelopment, having closed in 2021 during the Covid pandemic.

The Nag’s Head, with Ann Mealing as licensee and Thomas Nash as owner, was trading by 1838 but closed after 1839. Almost opposite the site of King’s Mill – where Rosebank Cottages stand close to Rayners Avenue today – stood the Richard Lucas-owned Star beerhouse from 1841 until 1854. This house was almost certainly established to refresh the workers at, and visitors to, the mill. The cottages now standing on the site have the look of the Rayner estate ‘style’ about them, suggesting they were erected later than 1854.

 

The Derehams Inn on Derehams Lane was a beerhouse licensed from 1856, run by George Witney and owned by Lord Carrington. Carrington had owned the house the year before, and Witney was the occupier. 

Although no name is mentioned in the records, the pub was known as the Bricklayers’ Arms by 1872, a name it seemed to retain until the late 1980s. Lord Carrington sold the pub to Williams of Wooburn in 1893 who were acquired by Wethered’s in 1927. Wethered’s proposed to rebuild it in 1947, though the licensing magistrates rejected their plan. It was granted a full licence in 1960.

When the Derehams closed in 2021 it had just been sold by the last licensee, the late Graham Sturgess, after several decades in private hands. The pub did not reopen as planned. An application to turn it into housing was rejected in late 2023 and the Derehams Inn Community Group has been formed to acquire and reopen the Derehams as a community pub, so perhaps Loudwater may soon regain one of its original pubs.

The Derehams Inn (courtesy Campaign for Real Ale)

Sources and links

SWOP (Sharing Wycombe’s Old Photographs)

Buckinghamshire Archives for property deeds, tithe map and poor rate assessments

The Bucks Free Press archive

Derehams Inn Community Group

Simonds family (history of the Simonds brewery of Reading)