Inns, Pubs and Beerhouses

Legal Framework and Terminology

In the early nineteenth century the sale of alcoholic drinks was extensively regulated both for the purpose of social control and as a form of taxation. Someone wishing to establish a house where alcoholic drinks were sold needed first to obtain (often with difficulty) a licence from the justices of the peace and then a licence from the commissioners of excise. Most of the licences related to the sale of beer; additional licences at increased cost were needed for the sale of wine and spirits. Licences had to be renewed annually, normally at special meetings of the justices, often referred to as “brewster sessions”.

The licensed buildings might be described as “public houses” or “taverns” or, if food was also sold “victualling houses” or, if food, sleeping accommodation (and usually stabling) were provided “inns”. These terms did not affect the licensing requirements but “inn” was a common law term and there was a wealth of case law, dealing, for example, with the extent to which innkeepers could refuse to serve customers. The word “hotel” did not itself have any legal significance but was increasingly used by innkeepers to suggest high quality accommodation; conversely “temperance hotel” indicated that the establishment was unlicensed. The older term for a public house, “alehouse”, was still in fairly common use in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Collectively the occupiers of licensed premises usually referred to themselves as “licensed victuallers”.¹1. “A Licensed Victuallers Protection Society is … being established in Louth …” (Mercury 29.3.1839) Individually they were mostly “publicans”, but often called themselves (eg in census returns) “innkeepers”, even when their premises were not technically inns.

By longstanding convention nearly all licensed premises were named (eg “Red Lion”), though this was not a legal requirement.

Louth’s Inns and Public Houses

Inns and public houses were of considerable economic importance and are of particular interest to users of the rating lists, since their location is normally known and they therefore constituted identifiable points of reference in the unnumbered streets.

It is not always easy to trace the history of public houses, because of changes of name. A baseline, 1782, for Louth is provided by Goulding 1903. Goulding used manuscripts that appear to be no longer extant, principally a “book of Recognizances of Innholders and their sureties for keeping good order…”. Before 1782 there is no adequate information: the earlier rating lists did not identify public houses and there are few press references. In 1782 there were 25 licensed establishments. In 1823 the number was still 25, even though in the intervening 40 years the population of Louth had nearly doubled.

Table 1 shows the inns and public houses dealt with in the rating lists. Table 2 gives supplementary information about changes.

Since R1823 gave half values, the 1838 values might be expected to be approximately double. The large increases 1823-1838 at the Black Bull and the Greyhound suggest building improvements. In 1851 the increase in the valuation of the King’s Head reflected a substantial enlargement in 1839.²2. See Mercury 16.8.1839. The licensee, George Willoughby, practised as an architect and the owner, Stephen Gray, was a wealthy merchant and investor.

(Most of the establishments listed in table 1 are no longer pubs but over half of the buildings still exist. For many of them modern photographs can be found by searching the ” Online Collections” database on Louth Museum’s website, which in some cases also has photographs dating from the nineteenth century.)

The Wholesome Beverage: Beerhouses

From 1830 the position was radically changed by the Beerhouse Act 1830.⁷7. This official short title was given by the Short Titles Act 1896. Previously the act was often referred to as the “Beer Act” or some similar unofficial name. This was associated with a reduction in the taxation of beer, which may have been the most popular reform of the brief and unsuccessful premiership of the Duke of Wellington. The intention (as explained by a member of Wellington’s cabinet) was to give “the poor man a cheaper drink” and to “encourage the consumption of a wholesome beverage amongst the poor and discourage that of intoxicating liquors” [mainly gin, the duty on which had been reduced in 1825]⁸8. Lord Ellenborough, speaking at the committee stage of the bill: The Times 9.7.1830. Numerous petitions were presented against the bill by publicans, who did not want the competition.Beerhouses were licensed for the sale of beer but not wine or spirits. “Licensed” in this context means having an annual excise licence, which was easy to obtain and, when first introduced, cost only £2 2s. The key point was that the approval of the licensing justices was not needed. Beerhouses were often referred to as “beer shops” or “Tom and Jerry shops”, a name derived from a magazine popular in the 1820s.⁹9. For example: “Chas. Johnson, keeper of a Tom and Jerry in Maiden Row, charged by police-constable McDonald with having interrupted him in the execution of his duty, was discharged on promising not to offend again.” (Mercury 16.10.1840)

Wellington had rejected suggestions that the beerhouses would lead to more drunkenness and crime; but these predictions appeared to be well-founded.¹⁰10. In 1833 the chairman of Lindsey Quarter Sessions identified three principal causes of increased crime: vagrants, poachers and beerhouses (Mercury 18.4.1833). To alleviate this the Beerhouse Act 1834 required licensees to produce annually a certificate of good character signed by six ratepayers that occupied houses or other premises rated at £6 or more. The limited scope of this safeguard was illustrated in Louth by Mary Crashley (c 1788–1874), who kept a beerhouse in Walkergate. Press reports indicate that her first conviction for harbouring prostitutes was in 1842 and her last such conviction in 1867. ¹¹11. Mercury 11.2.1842; Chronicle 20.12.1867. Presumably her annual certificates of good character were signed by the more prosperous customers of the prostitutes; the prostitutes themselves would not have occupied houses rated as high as £6.

Beerhouses were not identified as such in R1838 and most were not in R1851. It is impossible to say how many there were in Louth at any given date, because many licences seem to have been taken out only for short periods. The directories provided a rough guide by listing “retailers of beer”; the 24 listed in Pigot 1835 may be compared with 28 listed in Pigot 1841; but only eight names appeared on both lists. A better indication of numbers can be provided for the year 1851; details are given in the appendix below.

Running a beerhouse might not be easy money: in 1837, when considering cases at the insolvent debtors court in Lincoln Castle, the Commissioner remarked that “wherever he went, this retailing of beer was bringing numbers of infatuated men to ruin”.¹²12. Mercury 32.3.1837. Press reports sometimes confused beerhouses with public houses, particularly as beerhouse keepers soon began to give their houses names like those of public houses (eg Mary Crashley called her disreputable establishment “The Ploughboy”). Beerhouses were occasionally promoted to public house status; the only one to succeed in Louth before 1851 was William Jenney’s beerhouse in Eastgate, which had become a public house, shown as the Woodman in R1838.¹³13. The building was described as “old and dilapidated” in 1859, and also as “a low public house… a place of resort for loose characters and convicted persons” (Advertiser 14.5.1859 and 8.10.1859).

The golden age of beerhouses ended in 1869, when the Wine and Beerhouse Act 1869 brought them under the control of the licensing justices. This entailed a more searching inquiry into the character of the licensee and also consideration of the suitability of the premises. Thereafter the distinction between beerhouses and public houses was less important, though beerhouses continued throughout the nineteenth century.

Some beerhouses operated as off-licences. Beer was also sold by wholesalers, sometimes called “porter merchants”, who sold beer in a minimum quantity of five gallons. Often they were also wholesalers of wine and spirits; but “down to 1861, unless a householder wanted at least two gallons of spirits, he had no choice but to send his servant to the public house.”¹⁴14. Dowell 1888 Vol IV p 209.Brewing beer was widely regarded as an ordinary domestic activity, as noted by Anthony Trollope in 1881.¹⁵15. “I can bake and I can brew./ I can cook an Irish stew./ Wash a shirt and iron it too.” See Ayala’s Angel chapter 18 (not one of Trollope’s better novels). Initially some of the beerhouses were merely ordinary small houses and may well have sold beer brewed on the premises. However, there were various changes in the legislation to introduce minimum rateable values. These do not seem to have been enforced in Louth until the changes made by the 1869 Act.

Effect of Beerhouses on Public Houses

Although Louth’s licensed victuallers complained about “the deterioration in value of established inns and public-houses”¹⁶16. Mercury 5.4.1839 the figures in table 1 above indicate that the introduction of beerhouses did not reduce either the number or the value of public houses in Louth. However, the business of selling alcohol may have become relatively less important. In 1823 the inns and public houses represented approximately 4.8% of the total rateable value of Louth, which compares with 4.3% in 1838 and 3.9% in 1851.

Appendix: Beerhouses in 1851

The year 1851 is a suitable one to examine beerhouses, because we have exceptionally good information: R1851, the 1851 census, two fairly reliable 1849 directories and an inferior 1851 directory. The following list comprises those beer sellers that are referred to in at least one of the directories and also can be identified in both the rating list and the 1851 census, from which the stated occupations are derived.