The Exhibition Beerhouse Shefford

Exhibition Beerhouse: Clifton Fields 

The only references to this beerhouse| in documents held by Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service are in licensing registers. The first owner is shown as Abel Bray of Clifton, who sold out to Pryor, Reid & Company of Hatfield in 1898. The beerhouse closed in 1908, possibly as a result of Pryor, Reid & Company being bought out by Benskin's Watford Brewery in 1907.

This property was in Clifton Fields, although the exact location is not known, despite closing within two years of the Domesday Valuation of 1910 (the map and book for Clifton are confused, to say the least). This means that the site of the property was in Clifton until the boundary changed in 1933, and is now in Shefford.

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;
• HF143/3: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1878-1881;
• HF143/4: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1882-1890;
• 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:
1871-1873: Charles Bray, fisghmoner;
1873-1898: Abel Bray (brother of Charles Bray), fishmonger;
1898-1899: William Trolley;
1899-1900: Francis Charles Willis;
1900-1901: John Woolston;
1901-1902: William Nicholls;
1902-1903: John James Bullock;
1903-1905: Samuel George Dyer;
1905-1908: Francis Robinson Wallis;
1908: Joseph Harris
Beerhouse closed 22 Dec 1908