Rose and Crown in 1961 [Z53/95/3]

Rose & Crown: 89 High Street, Ridgmont

For most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Ridgmont had three public houses| in the High Street, the Rose & Crown, Red Lion| and White Hart|. All three buildings survive but only the easternmost of these, the Rose & Crown is still a public house. Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service has surprisingly little on this Charles Wells house, unlike other Wells houses the deeds not having been deposited with us. The first reference to the house is in the licensing records for 1822, four years later the public house was owned by Ampthill brewer John Carte who at that date leased it for three years to Abraham Fox of Wilshamstead. At some point Carte sold the public house to Woburn brewer James Fowler as he sold  the property of the previous tenant Dickens at auction in 1862. It seems likely that when Fowler's business was sold in 1881 the new firm of Charles Wells of Bedford (formed 1875) purchased the public house at that time, as it is known to have purchased several other ex-Fowler houses in the area at that date.

notice advertising sale of the former licensee's stock and furniture in 1871 [SF51/21]

Deeds of 1949 to 1953 for this property are still held by Charles Wells Limited.

In 1927 the public house was valued under the 1925 Rating Valuation Act; the valuer noted a brick and slate detached property with a long frontage; downstairs were a tap room, reception room, lounge, kitchen and cellar with five bedrooms upstairs; outside were two wcs, a coal barn and store. trade comprised one 18 gallon barrel of beer per week, two or three dozen bottles of beer per week and one gallon of spirits per month, the cellar held three eighteen gallon barrels.

 
Rose and Crown - February 2007

References:

- CLP13: Register of alehouse licences: 1822 - 1828
- WE110: three year lease from John Carte of Ampthill, brewer to Abraham Fox of Wilshamstead, yeoman; 1827;
- SF51/6: auction sale of farming stock and produce: 1862;
- SF51/17: sale of farming stock and furniture of leaving licensee: 1865;
- PSW3/1: Register of Alehouse Licences - Woburn Petty Sessional Division: 1868-1949;
- SF51/21: sale of leaving landlord's livestock and furniture: 1871;
- SF51/31: probate inventory of public house: 1886;
- SF51/34: inventory of public house: 1887;
- R1/344: shown on map: 1889;
- SF51/46: inventory of goods of deceased licensee: 1898;
- SF51/48: sale of farming stock and furniture of deceased licensee: 1898;
- X347/124: High Street showing Red Lion and Rose & Crown: early C20;
- PSA5/2: Register of Alehouse Licences - Ampthill Petty Sessional Division: 1934-1959;
- PSW3/2: Register of Alehouse Licences - Woburn Petty Sessional Division: 1949-1953;
- Z1105/1: Liquor Licence Traders Survey Form: 1958;
- Z53/95/3: photograph: 1961;
- WL722/94: article in "Pint Pot" on refurbishment: 1998;
- WL722/96: article on long standing licensees in "Pint Pot": 1998

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

1822: William Battams;
1827: William Beech;
1827: Abraham Fox;
1847: Francis Fox;
1854: Woods Rayner;
1862: Dickens;
1862-1865: Charles Fox;
1869-1871: William Herbert;
1879: William Slough;
1879-1886: William Tompkins [died 1886];
1886-1887: Elizabeth Tompkins;
1887-1898: Thomas John Miller [died 1898];
1898-1904: Charles Sinfield;
1904-1907: John Chapman;
1907: Henry James Ashley;
1907-1937: Charles William Parrott;
1937-1939: Matthew Bacon: convicted 24 Feb 1939 of supplying intoxicating liquors out of permitted hours, fined £2;
1939-1955: Reuben Ralph Hildreth;
1955-1959: Dennis A.Farmers;
1965-1978: Frank Cyril Scott;
1978: Neil Campbell McGregor