Shannon Public House

Shannon Public House: 18 Biggleswade Road, Potton

former Shannon Sep 2007

This public house| was named after Captain Peel's locomotive|. Peel built the Potton to Sandy railway which opened in 1857 and, as he was in command of the frigate HMS Shannon in the Black Sea at the time, the locomotive used on the track took the same name. The first record of the public house is in the first licensing register for the district held by Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service of 1872 suggesting it opened between 1857 and that date. It was owned by the trustees of Thomas Strickland, who died in that year and owned a number of other drinking establishments. It was leased to Sandy, then Potton brewer Alfred Richardson from about 1874 and later to Bedford brewers Charles Wells & Company. It closed in 1915.

References:
- HF143/1: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1872-1873;
- HF143/2: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1874-1877;
- CD827: account of succession of real estate of William Thomas Emery Judd on death of Thomas Strickland (1872) including house erected on site of Shannon: 1874;
- HF143/2: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1874-1877;
- HF143/3: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1878-1881;
- HF143/4: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1882-1890;
- CD828: Shannon, amongst other properties, granted to Arthur Brookes as trustee for William Thomas Emery Judd, James Francis Judd and Fanny Eliza Braybrooks: 1886;
- HF143/5: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1891-1900;
- HF143/6: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1900-1914;
- PSBW8/1: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1903-1915.

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

1861-1869: Thomas Peters;
1872-1882: James Burnage;
1882-1884: Samuel Pett;
1884: John Bentley;
1884: Frederick Burdett;
1884-1886: George L.Nicholson;
1886-1887: Peter Mee;
1887-1888: Jesse Badrick;
1888-1890: James Stephen Lincoln;
1890-1894: John Martin Barltrop;
1894: Charles Edward Jacobs;
1894-1898: William Roberts;
1898-1901: George Pearson;
1901: James Laing;
1901-1911: Alfred George Ackerman;
1911: William Stephen Price;
1911-1914: Charles Cooper;
1914: Walter Meeks Bentley
Public house closed 1915