Red Lion in March 2007

Red Lion: Wavendon Road, Salford 

This public house| was, for a considerable part of its history, in the parish of Aspley Guise. The house was owned by Bedford brewer Joseph Allen Piggott, being purchased by the firm of Piggot & Wells in 1858 and by Charles Wells in 1875. In 1927 the place was valued for rates as part of the 1925 Valuation Act. The Salford valuer could not gain entry and has written in his notebook "Shut up. Could not get in". His colleague doing Aspley Guise was a bit more successful though, as he noted, "Tenant out. Saw assistant (female) who was hopeless". The house consisted of a bar, tap room, kitchen and scullery downstairs with a cellar beneath. Upstairs were four bedrooms and outside a stable for two horses, two loose boxes, a trap shed, loose box and open hovel. The pub was clearly not prospering at this time as it only sold three barrels of beer and one gill of spirits per year; it was then noted as being part of a terrace, being "the end of three". At the time of writing [2006] the pub remains a Charles Wells house and offers accommodation as well as food and drink 

References of Documents held by Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service

- WL88: abstract of title of J.A.Piggot: 1844-1862;
- WL/Introduction/2: purchase by Piggot and Wells: 1858;
- WL73: sale catalogue, along with other properties of Piggot & Wells: 17 Dec 1875;
- Z50/98/25-26: postcards: late C19/early c20;
- WL800/4: photograph taken for Charles Wells Limited: c.1925;
- WL801/13: negative of WL800/4;
- PCHulcote&Salford: landlord Frederick Rumble a trustee of former school premises: 1964-1977;
- WL722/19: photograph in Pint Pot, magazine of Charles Wells Limited: Feb 1977;
- WL722/30: article on Red Lion in Pint Pot, magazine of Charles Wells Limited; Feb 1981 

Licencees: note that this is not a complete list and that dates in italics are not necessarily beginning or end dates, merely the first/last date which can be confirmed from sources such as directories and deeds:

before 1877-1879: George Garner;
1879-1882: John Facer;
1882: Joseph Samuel Davis;
1882-1883: Eliza Wilson Poole;
1883-1888: Charles Dinton;
1888-1892: George Newling;
1892-1902: William Charles Adams;
1902-1905: Alfred Henry Perry;
1905-1915: Andrew Lane;
1915-1953: Jesse Perry;
1963-1979: Frederick Rumble;
1979-1988: John Anthony Dicks;
1988: Robert Ernest Sapsford