Licensing in Wootton

Early Publicans

The following references are to early publicans in Wootton where the name of their establishment is not known:

• Matthew Waldeck and Richard Woodfield fined 20 shillings each for keeping unlicensed alehouses in Wootton: 1727 [Li/LibB1/19/7(23)];
• John, son of William and Mary Bliss, victualler, buried: 11 April 1731;
• John Dixey, victualler, buried: 31 October 1732;
• Richard Foulkes, victualler: will proved in 1778: ABP/W 1778/21;
• James Smith, victualler: will proved in 1784: ABP/W 1784/62;
• Robert Rutland, victualler: will proved in 1793: ABP/W1793/34;
• William Fowkes, publican, buried: 8 January 1812, aged 42

Royal Oak

Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service has one reference to a public house called the Royal Oak in Wootton. It is in a copy report of 1874 listing the premises owned by Bingham Newland, the inheritor of the Bedford brewery business of Sir William Long. The report notes that the business owned a house which had formerly been called the Royal Oak, along with four cottages somewhere in Wootton; sadly the exact location is not recorded [WL647].