Lion Beerhouse: Hill Lane, Upper Caldecote

The car wash is the site of the Lion Beerhouse

This beerhouse| lay very close to the Northill parish boundary with Biggleswade, on the east side of the Great North Road. In 1879 it was owned by Henry and Fanny Dillamore. Fanny Dillamore died in 1889, her husband in 1907. The property was sold by Henry Dillamore's executors in 1919 to Wells & Winch Limited, the Biggleswade brewers.

In common with the rest of Bedfordshire, Northill was valued in 1927 under the terms of the Rating Valuation Act 1925. Every piece of land and building was valued the valuer of the Lion [DV1/C/4/105] finding that it consisted of: a living room; taproom; kitchen; scullery; cellar; four bedrooms; earth closet; and urinal. Water was laid on and trade averaged a barrel of mixed beer per week,  4½ gallons of bitter and a dozen bottles. The takings were always about £7 per week. The valuer concluded: "good decorative repair but flood comes into house".

The beerhouse closed at some point between its last entry in a directory in 1940 and 1959, when it is omitted from a licensing register held by Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service. The building was subsequently demolished and the site is now [2007] the car wash at Sainsbury's supermarket. 

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;
- GK60/1: abstract of title; abstracting: mortgage from Henry and Fanny Dillamore to Henry Hunt: 1879;
- GK60/1: abstract of title; abstracting: mortgage by Henry Dillamore to Matilda Parker: 1880;
- GK60/1: abstract of title; abstracting: mortgage by Henry Dillamore to George Winters: 1880;
- GK60/1: abstract of title; abstracting: transfer of mortgage from George Winters to George Paine Winters and D.P.Winters: 1880;
- HF143/4: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1882-1890;
- GK60/1: abstract of title; abstracting: mortgage from Henry and Fanny Dillamore to George Winters and John Ulysses Paine: 1887;
- GK60/1: abstract of title; abstracting: will of Fanny Dillamore (proved 1899): 1889;
- GK60/1: abstract of title; abstracting: transfer of mortgage by personal representatives of Matilda Parker to George Paine Winters and D.P.Winters: 1889;
- HF143/5: Register of Alehouse Licences - Biggleswade Petty Sessional Division: 1891-1900;
- GK60/1: abstract of title; abstracting: assignment of mortgage to Robert Winter Croft: 1897;
- GK60/1: abstract of title; abstracting: grant by executors of will of Fanny Dillamore to Henry Dillamore: 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;
- GK60/1: abstract of title  abstracting: will of Henry Dillamore: 1907;
- GK60/1: abstract of title; abstracting: mortgage by Mary Maria Dillamore, Charles Ebeneezer Malden and  Samuel Richard Dillamore (executors of Henry Dillamore) to George Paine Winters and D.P.Winters: 1907;
- GK60/1: abstract of title; abstracting: transfer of mortgages by Robert Winter Croft, George Paine Winters and Daniel Alexander Paine to National Deposit Friendly Society: 1917;
- GK60/2 and extract in Z1029/34/2a: conveyance of Lion Beerhouse and 4 acres from Mary Maria Dillamore, Charles Ebeneezer Malden, and Samuel Robert Dillamore to Charles Thomas Lindsell and Arthur Bluett Winch: 1919;
- DV1/C/4: 1925 Rating Valuation Act survey: 1927;
- CCE5195/3: Tidy Tip land: reference to rear of former Lion: 1959 

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

1871-1880: John Clark;
1880-1885: George Crouch;
1885-1892: John Day;
1892-1895: William Laver;
1895-1897: Alfred James Churchyard;
1897-1920: James York;
1927: Oscar A.Brown;
1931: Mrs. Oscar Brown
1940: George Burns
Beerhouse closed by 1959