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The map is not to scale and does not show all roads. A walk today from one side of the area to the other would take little more than 10 minutes. Pubs are numbered in the text as follows: 1 Wheel 2 Elephant & Castle 3 Spread Eagle 4 Jolly Butcher 5 Mason’s Arms 6 Gate 7 Black Swan 8 Golden Fleece 9 Barley Mow 10 Chair Van 11 Rose & Crown 12 Peacock 13 Royal Oak 14 Roundabout 15 Plough 16 Rose 17 World’s End 18 Victoria |
This is the first of three posts looking at Newland, the area now covered by the Eden Centre and Wycombe’s bus station. The second part will be about the period from 1872 to the outbreak of World War Two, and the final part will take the story to 2025.
From the end of White Hart Street, where Newland Bridge crossed the junction of the Hughenden stream and the Wye, was Newland Street, the main road out of town to the west until the West Wycombe Road was turnpiked in the mid-18th century. The water meadows created and sustained by the Wye streams to the west of Newland Bridge began to be developed, first by lacemakers’ cottages and then, from about 1835, by the growing chairmaking industry.
Newland Street and the Narrows
The earliest pub in Newland was the Catherine Wheel, usually known simply as the Wheel (1).
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| The former Wheel in 1929 (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by High Wycombe Library) |
The name appears in the Universal British Directory published in five parts between 1791 and 1798. In 1792 it was conveyed from Thomas to Andrew Biddle who became a partner in what was to become Wheeler’s brewery in 1808.
This Wheel could be the same inn leased to William Turner by the Earl of Shelburne in 1755 as a replacement for the Catherine Wheel that had stood behind the Three Tuns off Wycombe High Street until it burnt down sometime before 1752.
The Elephant & Castle (2) and Spread Eagle (3) appear in the 1836 poor rate books – the earliest record we have for these alehouses. The Spread Eagle was owned by the Frogmore brewery of the Lucas family.
Of greater interest is the Elephant & Castle. James Mellett was the landlord and owner from at least 1836 until his death in 1870 when his wife, Susanna, took the licence. Mellett, who traded variously as a farrier and cattle doctor as well as publican, built almost a small village of nine properties around his pub in Mellett’s Yard, which he rented from the Dean and Chapter of Chichester. The pub itself consisted of a garden, yard, sawpit, stables, workshops and shed at Ash Wharf. In 1861 he had 10 lodgers.
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| The Elephant & Castle on the corner of Newland and Denmark Streets photographed, probably from Newland Bridge, c1890 (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by High Wycombe Library) |
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| The back of the former Spread Eagle in 1934 (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by High Wycombe Library) |
Further back towards Newland Bridge, where Newland Street and the Narrows parted to form the ‘island’, was the Jolly Butcher (4) beerhouse, opened in 1841 and owned by Charles Busby until Weller’s brewery of Amersham bought it the following year.
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| The Jolly Butcher in 1933. The entrance to the Narrows is on the left, while Newland Street runs past the right flank of the pub. One can a glimpse of the old Elephant & Castle (now a shop) on the far right (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by Bucks Free Press) |
The Jones family, who ran the pub throughout the period covered by this post are typical of those publicans who relied on a second trade to make a living. In this case they also had a cottage and outbuildings in which to carry on the butchers’ business.
The Mason’s Arms (5) beerhouse dates from 1843, starting life as the Happy Union. The earlier name may describe the pub’s position close to the point the Hughenden stream met the Wye stream coming from West Wycombe, much as the Happy Union at Loudwater was positioned close to the union of the front and back streams of the Wye.
The Mason’s was owned by the Presbyterian Trust whose Baptist chapel was next door. The Trust clearly chose to tolerate the sale of alcohol in one of their properties, even when the pub was granted a spirit licence in 1866.
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| The sign for the Mason's Arms next to Newland Chapel in 1935 looking towards the blocked-up entrance to the Narrows on the right and up Newland Street towards the former Elephant & Castle (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by High Wycombe Library) |
Lower Newland Street, the Meadow and Watery Lane
Further down Newland Street was the Gate (6), opened in 1844, owned by Charles Busby with John Church as licensee. This building was on land leased to the owner from around 1650 and consisted of the pub, meadow, cowhouse and outbuildings that had previously been two cottages. Weller’s brewery of Amersham took over part of the lease from Busby in 1849 and the remainder in 1853. It had a full licence by 1854.
Further still along Newland Street where the road out of town became Watery Lane (later Desborough Road) was a turning into a warren of new cottages, houses and workshops in an area called Newland Meadow. Almost immediately off Watery Lane was the Black Swan (7) beerhouse that the Williams brewery of Wooburn bought in 1835, together with an adjacent cottage and washhouse, from Charles Morecraft who had built the properties on his meadowland. It’s likely that the cottage was incorporated into the beerhouse in the early 1840s as by the time an application for a full licence to sell spirits was made in 1870 the pub comprised eight rooms.
The magistrates were told by the solicitor for Wheeler’s brewery, who objected to the grant of the licence as several of their own pubs were nearby, that ‘The labouring classes only required a licensed house for the purposes of obtaining spirits in case of sickness.’ Furthermore, the cottage incorporated into the existing pub was no such thing. It was merely an adjacent property that was independently let and therefore the pub’s rateable value was not sufficient to allow it to have a beerhouse licence, let alone a full licence. The full licence was not granted and the magistrates took no action to investigate Wheeler’s allegation. Some beerhouses lost their licences, or chose to close, around this time because they did not meet the valuation test.
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| The former Black Swan awaiting demolition in 1934. The cottages to the left were part of the group from which the beerhouse emerged. The pub had incorporated one of the cottages before 1870 and the pub had later been rebuilt (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by Wycombe Museum) |
Before we look further into Newland Meadow we head back out onto Watery Lane to find the Golden Fleece (8), which had opened by 1838 and is another Charles Busby and Weller’s relationship. It came with a cottage, garden, yard, outbuildings and workshop. Weller’s acquired the tenancy of the Fleece, which was leased from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England, in 1848.
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| The former Golden Fleece (centre right between Newland Cottage and the gas works) in 1962 (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by Bucks Free Press) |
Weller’s had also owned a beerhouse close to the Fleece in 1838, with Thomas Phillips as landlord in 1840. Phillips had taken on the Fleece by 1844 with the unnamed beerhouse closing.
Tucked away in an alley – called, at various times Pagan’s Row and Miller’s Row – off what would later be Denmark Street, was the Barley Mow (9) dating from 1844 with Wheeler’s as owner. It applied for and was granted a spirit licence the following year.
Further south, back in Newland Meadow, was the Chair Van (10) beerhouse of 1847, named after a particular design of wagon used for transporting large stacks of chairs. The owner, Henry Crook, leased the house to Wheeler’s who then bought it in 1853. Landlady Elizabeth Fryer was granted a spirit licence in 1865 after the licensing magistrates agreed with her argument that the expanding population of the Meadow needed another fully-licensed public house.
The Rose & Crown (11) opened in 1861 on the corner of Mendy Street and Watery Lane – now called Desborough Road. Initially a newly-erected beerhouse in an area that then had 100 new houses, it was granted a spirit licence in 1864. It had eight rooms and stables. In 1868, landlord Benjamin Cartwright ran a considerable chair manufacturing business from a yard in Mendy Street owned by Wheeler’s.
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| The Rose & Crown (on the right close to the first motor cyclist) during the 1953 floods, which was a regular occurrence on the road previously called Watery Lane (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by Bucks Free Press) |
Westward expansion
The Rose & Crown was the first of 10 identifiable pubs established in the rapidly expanding western part of Newland during the 1860s in new roads such as Mendy, Bridge, Union and Denmark Streets.
Staying in Mendy Street we have the Peacock (12), a Wethered’s of Marlow beerhouse, and a short-lived, unnamed house also owned by Wethered’s. The Peacock dates from 1864 and was granted a spirit licence in 1867. The other Wethered beerhouse was adjacent to the Rose & Crown and is no longer a pub after 1867 but a yard owned by Wethered’s brewery, perhaps used as a store.
At the western limit of Newland was Meadow Oxford Road – soon renamed Bridge Street – where the Royal Oak (13) appeared in 1862 on the corner of Union Street, followed by the Roundabout in 1863 on the corner of Watery Lane.
The Royal Oak beerhouse was owned by Joseph Ward. It was granted a spirit licence in 1866. The Roundabout (14) beerhouse of 1863, named after Desborough Castle, was owned by Thomas Phillips and granted a spirit licence in 1868.
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| The Roundabout in its original position on the corner of Desborough Road and Bridge Street c1930 (courtesy of Mark Page) |
In Denmark Street there was the Plough (15) and the Rose. The Plough beerhouse, with a workshop attached, opened in 1863. Owned, and likely to have been built by, James Williams, it was granted a spirit licence in 1865.
The Rose (16) beerhouse of 1867 was one of three cottages owned by Jesse Henderson. The pub name, as well as the name of the street it was in, is likely a reference to Alexandra of Denmark who had married Edward Prince of Wales, the later King Edward VII, in 1863. The Danes, being keen on roses, had a variety called Rose of Denmark.
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| The sign of the Rose in 1972. Pub signs such as this generally did not exist until after WW2. If there were any sign at all outside a beerhouse like the Rose it would show only the pub name, the owning brewery’s name and, perhaps, the name of brewery’s most renowned beer (courtesy of SWOP, copyright managed by Bucks Free Press) |
1867 also saw the opening of the third and final pub in Newland Meadow; the World’s End (17). This beerhouse consisted of a house, workshops, yard and stable owned by John Davis.
The final pub in this survey was midway down the eastern side of Bridge Street. The Victoria (18) beerhouse was owned and run by Alfred Corr from 1869. He had had the shop premises for several years, so would probably have continued the shop business alongside selling beer.
Long-lost pubs and mysteries
Several names of beerhouse keepers and beer retailers in Newland can be found in trade directories of the period, but we cannot determine the locations of their beerhouses. Tantalisingly, there are two more substantial businesses that we cannot locate. The most significant is Joseph Carr’s beerhouse in Meadow Row – likely close to the Black Swan – that appears in the 1836 poor rate records, which is the earliest record we have. It was owned by John White and consisted of a cottage and ‘buildings’ in addition to the beerhouse. After changing owners several times it ended up with the Parsons brewery of Princes Risborough in 1851 and was empty by 1853.
Another fleeting beerhouse was the Sun, owned by Robert Eedes and run by Richard Eele, it only appears in 1836. And, lastly, there is Anne Ford’s house in Bridge Street that appears in records for 1863 and 1864 only.
Sources
SWOP (Sharing Wycombe’s Old Photographs).
The Bucks Free Press archive.
Trade directories held at High Wycombe Library and online at the University of Leicester special collections.
Census records accessed online at The Genealogist.
Ordnance Survey maps held at Wycombe Library and online at the National Library of Scotland.
BROWN, Mike 2007, ABC: A Brewers’ Compendium: A Directory Of Buckinghamshire Brewers, Brewery History Society: Longfield.
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