Where have all Helpston’s pubs gone?

MYSTERIES OF SEVEN VILLAGE PUBS LOST IN THE MISTS OF TIME – OR WAS IT THE EXTRA STRONG ALE ?

Helpston’s two pubs – the Blue Bell and the Exeter Arms are popular venues with many people from the village and outside, but did you know that there are at least another six buildings and two sites which were once pubs? 
   Walking along West Street Helpston, you may notice a house with a piece of glass in the door etched with the words: ’Queen’s Head House’.  This is the clue to the home of Allan and Kay Robinson, whose house was a pub for many years up to 1959.  Waiting for the bus to Stamford from Helpston, you may stand outside ‘The Parting Pot’, another former pub.
  

The Railway Hotel

These are the easy ones to spot.  What you may not know is that 86 Glinton Road (the big stone house across the railway crossing), was the Railway Hotel, 18 Woodgate, was The Royal Oak, ‘Feathers’, West Street, was ‘The Prince of Wales Feathers’ and  6, Glinton Road, (Virginia Cottage), was probably ‘The Carpenters’ Arms?  Wainfleet House, Woodgate, is thought to be built (in 1847) on the site of the old Axe & Cleaver, and The Fitzwilliam Arms once existed – but it’s not known where. Dan Crowson’s book also mentions ‘The Turpin Public House’.  It is thought that this was somewhere in Woodgate and was demolished.
   When research for this article began, I had no idea of the wealth of information available and here, owing to space, we are only able to scratch the surface.  There will be lots missed out and owing to human error and lack of original source material, there will no doubt be some mistakes.  However, you may find your appetite whetted and be encouraged to begin some research of your own. 
   We will start with those pubs which some villagers can still remember. Or to be more accurate, most of them were Beer Houses, licensed to sell, cider and beer, but not spirits. There are villagers who remember The Railway Hotel, which was a fully licensed Public House and closed in 1958.

Buster Bickers’ Memories of the Railway Hotel

Buster Bickers, who now lives in Broadwheel Road, lived there until he was 14, and at that time his grandfather James Montague Bickers kept the pub. Buster’s father was Frederick Bickers. It was still a pub when the family left in 1957 for Chocolate Cottage in Woodgate.
   “There was no electric when we were at the Railway”, Buster recalls- “and of course no gas, so we used oil and paraffin lamps and candles for lighting.  It was a lovely big house with lots of rooms.  Quite a few people lived at the Hotel – railway and mill workers.  We kept 200-300 chickens at a time, 100 geese and a pig in the one and a half acres. Mother ran it on her own in the daytime. Dad worked at Brotherhoods. My mother was a Peterborough girl. After their wedding, war broke out and father got sent to London making aeroplanes at a place called ‘Fairy Aviation’.”  Buster and his brother Alan were born in London. “Grandad kept the pub during the war.”  When his grandma died, Buster & the family came back (Buster age 2) to Helpston. “I remember weekends were busy.  People used to come from Etton. “
   He recalls that the pub belonged to Mowbrays of Grantham, then changed to Flowers. “When we left it belonged to Flowers, but then went to Steward & Pattersons,” Buster told us.  “The year my Dad left we could’ve bought it for £3,500.” Even in those days, of course £3,500 was a lot of money.
   Buster has a treasured copy of the Peterborough & District Licensed Victuallers’ Association Official year Book and Account Book for 1955-6.  In addition to rules about licensing and advice against watering down spirits because doesn’t actually work very well,this lists every week’s takings at the Railway and shows that sales were regularly between £4 and £16 per week. Christmas Day 1957 was a good day when £18.15s 6d was taken.

 Takings for August 1956 were exceptionally high.  Does anyone remember that year as having  a very hot August? Buster explained that in years gone by, the water was unpleasant and so people naturally drank beer to quench their thirst. Adverts in the book include the “Best Biscuit and Cheese Snack – Ko-Ko and the Dujon Restaurant in Peterborough.  Do any readers remember enjoying a meal there?
   In the same year that Buster and his family left the Railway, the Parting Pot closed.  He recalled that this was then kept by Tommy Rudkin, a professional footballer who played for Arsenal, Bristol – and Helpston!  Buster was friendly with Tommy’s son, another Tommy.  He remembers a sister of Tommy’s – Valerie, but knows there was another sibling. Who was she?
  

Parting Pot

Around that time the Queen’s Head was kept by the Richardsons, who later took on the Exeter.  “Nobody called it the Queen’s Head,” he said.  “It was always “The Top House because of its position in the village.”

DID YOU KNOW? (Remember 1 gallon is roughly 4 ½ litres.)

 36 gallons = 1 barrel

4 ½ gallon cask of ale = a Firkin

18 gallons = a Kilderkin

a Puncheon of brandy = 120 gallons

a Hogshead = 60 gallons

a Butt of Sherry = 108 gallons

a Pipe of Port = 115 gallons

 Odd Fact: In the LVA Year book there is a reference to water being kept under lock in Bonded Warehouses.
 The house that was formerly the Railway Hotel is now owned by Paul and Jula Shonfeld, who have lived there for the past five years.  They have a keen interest in the history of their home but have not had the time to find out much about it.  However, Jula was able to tell of evidence of a cellar.“  You can see where the cellars went down,” she said.  “The kitchen door is a split (stable-type) door with a narrow (5”) ledge for serving the beer.  We understand that the house was built in 1810 as a farmhouse.  There is a photo of the house with the sign ‘Railway Hotel’ on our wall. Asked about what it is like to live so close to the railway, Jula said:”Today’s trains are fast and soon gone. We only notice them when we’re in the garden because the previous occupants had the place completely soundproofed. Also we came here from Twickenham and were used to the constant drone of planes going over.’  ‘We keep chickens and have a paddock where the children, Oliver, Toby and Harriet play.  Two parcels of allotments are let out to local people. “I love living here,” says Jula.
   Fascinating stories of landlords and their brushes with the law are frequent in the village’s history.  At Peterborough Petty Sessions in1865, Joseph Fletcher of the Railway Hotel was allowed bail after being accused of ‘the serious charge’ of receiving stolen wheat.  His accuser was a Daniel Webster, a farmer of Nunton Barn.  Subsequently Fletcher went to prison and we know this because his wife’s brother, Mr Ward was refused permission to carry on the pub ‘for the benefit of his sister and her family during Fletcher’s incarceration’ because the judge thought that the wife ‘must have been aware of her husband’s transactions.’  A new licence was granted in 1866 to Thomas Downs, but by 1869 J Ward had got the licence he wanted.

By 1887, the Railway was changing hands again and an advert in the Peterborough Advertiser list items for sale as Mr William Potter prepared to take his leave:

 ‘The modern & useful Household Furniture, feather, wool, and flock Beds, Mattresses, washstands, dressing tables, cane-seated and Windsor chairs, loo table, dining ditto, French bedsteads, swing glasses, couch, bureau, clock, time-piece, kitchen and dairy utensils.  Thirty live fowls, 30 fancy pigeons, ladders, wagon ropes, 7cwt hay, old iron, tubs, pails, forks, scythes, old wood and other lots.’

George Crowson’s Memories of Helpston’s Pubs

George Crowson recalled that in his time a girl “jumped out of the bedroom window of the Parting Pot and went and got married.”  He also remembered that Mr. Foster had his licence taken away for serving beer after closing time.  George thinks that the Parting Pot and the Queen’s Head House were closed in  within a year of each other as they were taken over by the same breweries.   The Pot was a Phipps House and the QH Philips of Stamford.  Phipps bought Philips out and subsequently the pubs were taken over by Northampton Brewery Company.  George’s wife, Nola used to live near the breweries at Northampton, where Carlsberg is still made.  He recalls that each pub offered different attractions. “The Pot was a big pub for dominoes and I used to cheat,” he confesses.  George also knows that there was a shop selling food and household goods at the Prince of Wales Feathers.
  

Prince of Wales Feathers

“In the war,” he says, the pubs only had so much beer.  I’ve taken beer out of one pub and drunk it in another!  You could get five cigarettes, a box of matches and a glass of beer and still get change out of 6d in those days!”  A pint was 4d, a glass of beer 2d, matches 1d and Woodbines 2d.”

PARTING  POT

This Beer House was built in 1819 following completion of the Enclosure Act which was instrumental the in construction of a metalled road to Glinton  from where it now meets Maxey Rd. In 1851 the Landlord was William Charity, who also traded as a carpenter and butcher.  At that time there was a forge operating in the Nook which would have attracted some casual business. Closing as pub in Sept 1955, it was owned at that time by the late Rodney Dyson, whose brother, John still lives in The Nook, and was then sold to the current owner, Mona Hurry and her late husband, Tom.
   “In a booklet ‘Clare’s Village’ by Bessie Garfoot-Gardner (pub 1950), reference is made to the landlord of the Beer house and Bakery – the Parting Pot (John Gregory dcd 1910)…”many persons who would have hesitated to enter an ordinary inn , rested awhile when they purchased Gregory’s delicious home made biscuits.  Peak Freans subsequently bought the recipe of this Helpston biscuit.” (source: a George Boyden letter).  It is clear from correspondence that despite George’s best efforts, he was unable to track the recipe down from biscuit manufacturers. Mona Hurry told the Tribune that Bessie Garfoot –Gardner asked for the name :”The Old Parting Pot” to be retained. Mona & her husband Tom, retained  “The Parting Pot”, where  Mona has lived for ‘nearly 50 years’.  There is a large barn, now registered as a stable, where there used to be dances.  Mona knows that the special Helpston biscuits were sold from there.
   Nancy Dudley remembers  that as a young girl she fetched ale for the men working in the fields from the Parting Pot, which she also remembers was well patronised by her father, Jim Ingram.  At that time the occupants sold” a few packets of crisps or a strip of aspirins”, she said.  Some people recall a bay window in here. Paddy Rawlinson (nee Paddy [Vera] Stubbs), remembers landlord, Charlie Abbott.  She recalls chickens being kept in the barn there. Several villagers remember the Parting Pot and The Queen’s Head and being open for business in their lifetimes.

 THE QUEEN’S HEAD HOUSE (West Street)
This closed as a pub in 1959, when it was sold to Reginald and Isobel Beal and is now in the ownership of Allan and Kay Robinson. In 1892, the landlord there also carried on the trade of a butcher.

 From the Peterborough Advertiser 13^th July 1861: To be sold by auction: upon the premises of Mr J Snow, the Queen’s Head Inn: his Household Furniture, Painting and Prints, China, Glass, Butcher’s Implements and effects; comprising four-post tent, and other bedsteads and hangings, 4 good feather beds with bolsters and pillows, mattresses, 5 pairs blankets, quilts and bedding, wash-stands with dressing tables, chamber services, pier and dressing glasses, sofa, 4 dozen cane-seated, farmed, Windsor and other chairs, fenders and fire irons, carpets and rugs, eight-day clock, Dutch ditto, oak dining and other tables and stands, dinner and tea trays, beer measures, pictchers, pots, and glasses, old lead pump with pipe, large brass pan, scalding tubs, forms, four-corner pins, frame and two balls, and the usual description of House, Chamber and Kitchen Requisites. Sale to commence 11am 9 July 1861.

THE ROYAL OAK  (18, Woodgate) There is very little factual information on this Ale House, currently owned by Brian Cocks.  It has been a puzzle to him, why this property was built back from the road, but the answer could lie in the fact that it was used as a wheelwright’s premises according to the 1851 census and refreshments were provided for the waggoners.  At this time it was managed by a John Cluff.  Later, 1855-1890 John Clare (not the poet) looked after it and from 1896-1916 the landlord was William Frisby.
   A fascinating find after Brian bought the house, which he believes was once two properties, was a licence, bearing the name John Clare.  This was discovered in the stairs by builders during renovations.  The builders made off quickly to Stamford Museum, not telling Brian anything about their find, but eventually gave it to him and he has it to this day. Dating originally from around 1750 and closing as an Beer House in 1929, Brian bought The Royal Oak from Phoebe Sanderson and was left with many of her possessions including a tankard, which he passed back to the family. This lady died aged 99 and was the mother of Mrs M Reeve (who may be remembered in the village).

PRINCE OF WALES FEATHERS (West Street) This was not operating officially in the lifetimes of our older villagers, though they may remember something about it. A sad, but interesting story attached to the ‘Feathers’ comes from the Peterborough Advertiser of 1873:

“Melancholy Death at Helpston” Inquest held at Prince of Wales on Mary Eady, (74), widow who ‘resided with her son at his beerhouse. She had frequently complained of throbbings in the head. Seen in the Long Close Fields on Monday morning by Mrs Mary Ann Eady and on enquiry said she was going a little way into the fields.  Being sometime absent, her granddaughter was sent to look for her and found her lying in a pond. It was presumed that the deceased got into the water accidently. Verdict:’ Found drowned’.
   In 1903 Ebenezer Wootten was the proprietor.  His name may be remembered as there is a connection with the Exeter Arms, a William Samuel Wootten living at the Exeter for 41 years, a much-loved landlord, dying suddenly in 142 aged 69.

THE FITZWILLIAM ARMS The location of this Beer House is currently unknown.  The only information we have is that the 1851 census shows a Samuel Wagstaff as being in charge and it was likely that he managed it from 1851-6. Is he is the same Samuel Wagstaff (formerly of Helpston, apprehended at Spalding) under a charge of ‘obtaining a quantity of onion seed under false pretences from a farmer, Mr Bates of Werrington’ (Lincoln, Rutland & Stamford Mercury 1855)?

THE CARPENTERS’ ARMS (NOS 4&6 Glinton Road – Virginia Cottage?)
It is likely that the Carpenters’ Arms was situated at the property now known as Virginia Cottage and was a Beer House with brewery in the mid – 1800’s. Advertisements for the period reveal the following information: From “Particulars and Conditions of Sale of the estate of Thomas Chapman, situate at Helpston in the County of Northampton. “An extensive freehold corner property, well situated in the village with a frontage to the Main Street and to the road to Maxey and Deeping, comprising: A General Village Shop with commodious Dwelling-House, now occupied as two tenements, the whole containing 3 Sitting Rooms, 6 Bedrooms, Dairy, Storerooms, etc; a range of Stone and Tiled Buildings, containing a Barn, Wash-house, Carpenter’s Shop, 2-Stall Stable etc; with Yard entered by Double Doors, and small Garden, as now in the occupation of Thomas Chapman, the Owner and his Tenant.”…
   “The Title shall commence with a deed of conveyance dated the 6^th day of April 1877…” 
From a copy of an ‘Indenture of Mortgage’: “All those two Messuages shop building yard and gardens in Helpstone now in the occupation of Thomas Chapman formerly descroibed as All  That Messuage or tenement formerly occupied as a beerhouse and known by the sign of the Carpenter’s Arms with the Brewery Yard garden and premises thereto..adjoining and belonging situate at Helpstone aforesaid formerly in the occupation of William Whitehead. And also all that Messuage or tenement adjoining the last described messuages or one of them and all whicj said premises are bounded on the West and North West by a lane leading to Maxey on the North by land of the Churchwardens of Greatford and on the South by Glinton Road which said Messuages were conveyed by the Mortgagor by an Indenture bearing date the Seventh day of October One thousand eight hundred and ninety nine and made between John Henry Beeby and Alfred Jermyn of the one part and the mortgagor of the other part.”
   Dated  15^th January 1902 : Mr WH Pentney to the First Peterborough Richmond Building Society Mortgage of Messuages and premises situate at Helpstone to secure £200. Dated  10^th December 1906
Source P’boro Advertiser 10.2.1877:
“Valuable Freehold Beerhouse, Brewery and Plant. In Liquidation. To Brewers and Others. Helspton, near Market Deeping. To be Sold by Auction. by Mr William Mann At the Bull Hotel, Peterborough on Tuesday, 13^th February, 1877 at Six for Seven o’c;ockpm… All that Valuable Freehold Beerhouse and Premises, known as the ‘Carpenters’ Arms’, situate at Helpston, in the County of Northamptonshire, now in the occupation of Mr. Chas. Bodger, together with the fixtures therein, and the Outbuildings thereon, and the very Valuable Brewery Business, for some time carried out in conjunction with the same. The Brewery Premises are fitted up with brewing boiler and furnace, force pump and piping, working vat and frame, and other appliances for carrying on the trade. The premises are situate midway between the Market Towns of Peterborough and Stamford, within a mile from the Midland and Great Northern lines of Railway, forming a position highly advantageous for carrying on a lucrative and extensive business – residential or otherwise. There is a well of excellent water upon the premises…”

 Here is a sign of the current times as far as house prices go fromP’boro Advertiser May 22 1886: “ Helpston House Property.- On Thursday three freehold dwelling houses with spacious outbuildings formerly used as a brewery with frontage to the main street were offered at auction by Mr.J. Bristow at the Exeter Arms Inn.  The bidding reached 1001 and a reserve of 2901 was named by Messrs Deacon & Co Solicitors.  The houses are thatched and were purchased a few years ago for 4001, one of these houses is now standing empty as are several others in the village.  House property like land, in the neighbourhood, seems to have gone down at least 50per cent in value.”

These three cottages appear on a sketch of a plan and George Boyden’s notes (2004) explain: “I met Mr Bettinson at Ryhall Concert. He informed me he had purchased no 6 Glinton Rd and had converted the three cottages into one dwelling.  No date given, but assessed as 1950-60.” So the defunct pubs and Beer Houses from old Helpston  conjure up a picture of the past.  It is a hazy picture for those of us living here now – a bit like a jigsaw with so many pieces missing.  It speaks of hard times, good times, a whisper of scandal here and there.  And that is perhaps the link between yesterday and today.

My particular thanks to George Boyden for access to his painstaking research, to all who have given their time and to the contributors to Botolph’s Barn website.

Author: Sue Young