White Hart: High Street, Ridgmont 

For most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Ridgmont had three public houses |on the High Street, the Rose & Crown|, Red Lion| and White Hart. The White Hart was the westernmost of the three and is now a private house. The earliest mention of the property in any documents held by Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service is in an inventory of Ampthill brewers John and Joseph Morris of 1827, by which time it was already a licensed premises. It continued in Morris & Company ownership until the firm was taken over by J.W.Green Limited, the Luton brewers in 1927. In the same year a valuation of the premises was made under the 1925 Rating Valuation Act; the valuer found a brick and tile detached building, it comprised a smoke room ("nice"), kitchen, tap room and bar downstairs with three bedrooms above (with a note in brackets that this became two bedrooms and a bathroom). Outside the premises comprised a coachhouse, barn and washhouse and garage ("cobble floor, no pit"); it was on mains drainage with water from London & Devon Estates (now Bedford Settled Estates) and had a telephone. Takings were £92 per annum for sale of a barrel of beer a week and half a gallon of spirits a month, its principal problem was its competition as summed up ruthlessly by the valuer: "Ought to be much better but killed by personality of tenant at page 89 [Red Lion]", the tenant at the White Hart was an "old Navy man with pension". The old navy man also owned a shop in the High Street which was run by a Miss Rogers, whom Kelly's Directory reveals to have been Grace Rogers, a greengrocer.

J.W.Green merged with Flowers Breweries in 1954 and, although the senior partner, took the Flowers name. The list of licensees in Ampthill RDC licensing records extends to 1959. Soon after this the public house closed as, on 20 Nov 1964, the premises was sold by Whitbread, which had taken Flowers over in 1962, to the Bedford & Ouse Valley Land Company Limited.

former White Hart in February 2007

References:

- CLP13: Register of alehouse licences: 1822 - 1828;
- Z1043/1: listed in inventory of John & Joseph Morris of Ampthill, brewers: Jun 1827;
- X21/629: conveyance of properties from Joseph Morris to devisees under the will of John Morris, deceased: 1828;
- WB/M/4/1/VP1: conveyed, with other properties, to John Morris of Ampthill, brewer: Dec 1831;
- SF51/4: auction sale of furniture held at White Hart: 1860;
- SF51/5: auction sale of property held at White Hart: 1862;
- SF51/9: auction sale of property held at White Hart: 1864;
- SF51/13: auction sale of property held at White Hart: 1865;
- SF51/14: auction sale of property held at White Hart: 1865;
- SF51/11: auction sale of property held at White Hart: 1865;
- SF51/10: auction sale of property held at White Hart: 1865;
- SF51/1: auction sale of property held at White Hart: 1867;
- PSW3/1: Register of Alehouse Licences - Woburn Petty Sessional Division: 1868-1949;
- WB/M/4/1/VP2: mortgaged by John Thomas Green: 1882;
- CCE5304/1 and WB/M/4/1/VP8: conveyed, with others, to Morris & Company (Ampthill) Limited: 1907;
- Z49/937: photograph of cart with logs outside inn: c.1910;
- Z49/938: photograph of inn: c.1910;
- Z50/95/46: photograph from west: c.1910;
- WB/M/4/2/1-2: listed in inventories Morris & Company (Ampthill) Limited: 1926;
- WB/Green4/2/2: ledger detailing payments to landlords for premises etc. by J.W.Green Limited: 1927-1953;
- CCE5304/3: conveyed, with others, to J.W.Green Limited: 1926;
- PSA5/2: Register of Alehouse Licences - Ampthill Petty Sessional Division: 1934-1959;
- WB/Green6/4/1: details in trade analysis register of J.W.Green Limited: 1936-1947;
- WB/Green4/2/4: list of properties of J.W.Green Limited: 1936-1952;
- WBGreen4/2/5: list of properties of J.W.Green Limited: c.1936;
- WW2/AR/CA/1/1/4: room requisitioned as ARP Warden's Post (later transferred): c.1940-1941;
- PSW3/2: Register of Alehouse Licences - Woburn Petty Sessional Division: 1949-1953;
- WBGreen4/2/9: list of properties of J.W.Green Limited: c.1949;
- WBGreen4/2/10: schedule of deeds of J.W.Green Limited: c.1949;
- WB/Flow4/5/Ri/WH1-2: photographs: 1950s;
- Z1105/1: Liquor Licence Traders Survey Form: 1951;
- WB/Green4/2/16: list of premises of J.W.Green Limited: 1952;
- WB/Green4/2/17: list of premises of J.W.Green: 1952-1972;
- WBGreen4/2/18: certificate of title to certain properties of J.W.Green Limited: 31 Mar 1954;
- WBGreen4/2/19: listed in various loose schedules of deeds of properties of J.W.Green Limited: c.1954;
- CCE5304/3: memorandum of conveyance to Bedford & Ouse Valley Land Company Limited: 1964

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

1822-1847: Norman Francis;
1854: Elizabeth Francis;
1862-1882: Thomas Brown;
1882-1886: Elizabeth Brown;
1886-1887: Frederick Seabrook;
1887-1889: John Favell;
1889-1890: Henry James Welch;
1889-1890: John Parker Bird;
1890-1891: John Dix;
1891-1897: Joseph Arnall;
1897-1898: John William Arnall;
1998-1901: Charlotte Arnall;
1901-1902: Edward Robert Pratt;
1902-1911: George Robert Sharp;
1911-1913: James Frederick Goodchild;
1913: Fred Inchley;
1913-1920: William Ricketts;
1920-1950: Joseph Corbett;
1950-1959: Lilian Annie Corbett (Pratt from 12 Mar 1951)