Other Licensed Premises

Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service does not have many records for some premises and has stray references in directories and parish registers to innkeepers, beer sellers etc. The following are establishments for which little information is held

Halfway Beerhouse: Woburn Road, Kempston [also Red Beerhouse]

The only reference to this beerhouse| occurs in the 1884 sale catalogue of the Kempston Hoo Estate which describes it as being "by the side of the Bedford or Woburn Road" and containing a parlour, tap room, kitchen, cellar, and three bedrooms, with a stable, barn, coal house and piggeries and small enclosure of pasture land at the rear. It was let to Bedford brewer Thomas Jarvis but, unfortunately, no sub-tenant or licensee is named.

One of the pleasures of working for an archive service is that users provide us with the fruits of their researches. Andrew Hogg discovered that his great-grandmother lodged with publican Charles Whitbread in 1871, she was daughter-in-law of George Church, a previous publican who died in 1864. The 1876 Licensing Register for Bedfordshire shows Charles Whitbread as being licensee of an unnamed beerhouse which was first licensed in 1847. The property was owned by Mary Barnard, owner of the Kempston Hoo Estate.

Thus it seems likely that George Church and Charles Whitbread were both licensees of the Halfway Beerhouse. The 1871 puts this establishment in March [Marsh Leys], perhaps somewhere not too distant to the later Brickmakers Arms|

Sources:
- Z808/3/1 and STuncat353: sale catalogue of Kempston Hoo Estate: 1884

List of Licensees: note that this is not a complete list. Italics indicate licensees whose beginning and/or end dates are not known:
1861-1864: George Church;
1871-1876: Charles Whitbread

The former Coffee Tavern in October 2007

Coffee Tavern: 15 High Street, Kempston

This was not, of course, a licensed premises, quite the reverse, it was part of a move by the temperance movement to replace public houses with something they considered more socially responsible and healthy. Interestingly, a coffee shop still occupies the premises at the time of writing [2007]. The 1891 census identifies the occupier as Elizabeth Burton, a single woman of 55 from Wootton, she was still there in 1898. In 1910 the owner was Ann Charles Williamson and the occupier Edwin Keep. 

Sources:
- DBV1/53: rating valuation: 1910

Mulberry Bush Public House: Orchard Street, Kempston

This is a modern public house, opened in 1972 and owned by Charles Wells Limited.

Sources:

- WL722/6: Article regarding opening in Charles Wells in-house magazine Pint Pot: 1972;
- WL722/98: family features in Charles Wells in-house magazine Pint Pot: 1999 

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

1972-1976: Hubert Crowsley and Harry Hunter;
1976-1978: Richard Rawson Wolstenholme Hancock and Harry Hunter;
1978-1983: Richard Rawson Wolstenholme Hancock and Thomas Ian Spencer;
1983-1988: Derek Charles Gibbs and Thomas Ian Spencer;
1988-1989: Thomas Ian Spencer and Raymond Reginald Sydney Wheldal;
1989-1991: Raymond Richard Sydney Wheldal and Martin David Lee;
1991-1992: Alan Robert Targett and Raymond Reginald Sydney Wheldal;
1992-1993: Alan Robert Targett and Richard W.Turner;
1993: Alan Robert Targett and Peter Grazier;
1993-1996: Michael Masters and Douglas John Baker;
1996: Lesley Masters and Peter Grazier

Early References

The following is a list of innkeepers, victuallers, publicans and beer retailers in Kempston who were licensees of unidentified premises and are noted either in parish registers, censuses or directories (directories did not name beerhouses, simply giving the location):
- Abraham, Joseph: beer retailer: 1869;
- Allen, James: beer retailer: 1864-1869
- Barrett, Ebenezer: beer retailer and tailor: 1854-1864;
- Boston, Philip: beer retailer: 1854-1864;
- Bradshaw, Joseph: beer retailer: 1847;
- Brummell, George: beer retailer: 1890;
- Burley, Eli: beer retailer: 1877;
- Church, George: farmer, agricultural labourer and publican; Up End or Marsh Leys: 1851-1864;
- Cotton, Joseph: beer retailer; Up End: 1854-1877;
- Denton, Fanny: beer retailer: 1869;
- Denton, Joel: beer retailer: 1864;
- Dudley, James: beer retailer: 1864;
- Dumpley, Richard: beer retailer: 1890;
- Durant, Edward Thomas: beer retailer; Woburn Road: 1898;
- Farrer, William: beer retailer: 1869-1890;
- Fisher, Thomas: victualler; buried 1769;
- Freshwater, William: beer retailer and farmer: 1847;
- Gardiner, John: victualler; 1755-1759;
- Garner, George: agricultural labourer and beer seller; "village"; 1861-1869;
- Garner, Levi: beer retailer: 1877-1885;
- Gascoyne, Joseph: beer retailer: 1894;
- Giggins, Ruth: beer retailer: 1877;
- Green, Francis: beer retailer; Up End: 1861;
- Hart, George: beer retailer and butcher: 1847;
- Hart, Mary Ann: beer retailer and butcher; Up End: 1854-1869;
- Hart, William: beer retailer: 1877;
- Haynes, Joseph: beer retailer: 1877-1885;
- Houghton, George: beer retailer: 1885;
- James, John: beer retailer: 1847;
- Katterns, William: beer retailer: 1894;
- Keep, Amos: beer retailer: 1877;
- King, John: beer retailer: 1877-1890;
- Knight, Charles: beer retailer: 1890
- Lilley, Thomas: beer retailer: 1847;
- Locke, Frederick: beer retailer; Bell End: 1910;
- Millyard, Charles: beer retailer: 1894;
- Odell, James: beer retailer: 1890-1894;
- Pateman, George: beer retailer; 38 High Street: 1910;
- Pool, William: beer retailer: 1890;
- Robinson, W. William: blacksmith and publican; Up End: 1851;
- Saunders, Alexander: beer retailer; High Street: 1898;
- Sharp, William: beer retailer: 1877-1894;
- Sich, T.Thrale: beer retailer: College Street: 1898;
- Slater, Arthur: beer retailer: Wells & Winch tied house: 1932;
- Slater, George: beer retailer; St.John's Street: 1890-1894;
- Smith, Albert: beer retailer; Woburn Road: 1898;
- Smith, Giles: innkeeper; buried 1733;
- Tassell, William: beer retailer: 1847;
- Toole, Rose: beer retailer: 1894
- Tory, Thomas John: beer retailer; Bell End: 1894-1898;
- Walker, Daniel: beer retailer: 1869;
- Walker, John: beer retailer: 1854;
- Walton, Thomas: victualler; buried 1729;
- Whitbread, Charles: beer retailer; Woburn Road: 1847-1894;
- Welch, Alfred: beer retailer: 1877;
- Wicken, Henry: beer retailer: 1854;
- Worrall, Isaac: beer retailer and bricklayer: 1847