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Brentford Beer Retailers and Licensed Victuallers A-Z

The following A-Z list of beer retailers and licensed victuallers was compiled for the Brentford Local History Day, June 4 2011, the theme being 'Pubs and Inns in and around Brentford'.

If you had an ancestor who ran an inn, hotel, pub or beerhouse you may be able to find photos or postcards showing the property. You may also find the history of the property has been researched and published.

Your beer retailer ancestor may also be mentioned as a witness in an Old Bailey trial (1674 - 1913: see Web Links for a link to this free web site). For example, the trial of Richard Pearce of Brentford in 1883 for 'Feloniously throwing Kate Pearce into a canal, with intent to murder her' mentions Robert Bee 'I live at Brentford ... I am a beerhouse keeper, which I attend to when my newspaper business is over, at 10 o'clock' and 'Mr. Van's public-house, the Black Boy'.

The details of Robert Bee helps explain why ancestors sometimes appear as a beer retailer and on other occasions with a different occupation in censuses and directories: the beer house may have been just an evening occupation, worth including in a trade directory but the day job may have been a more important source of regular income and noted in census returns.

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Information has been taken from 1811 and 1841 - 1911 censuses, trade directories (1826, 1839, 1845, 1851, 1853, 1855, 1866, 1874, 1878, 1882, 1890, 1898, 1907, 1913, 1920, 1926, 1928, 1933, 1937, 1938, 1940), 'Brentford & Chiswick Pubs' by Gillian Clegg, research by Mary Blyth, information from Mr Harrison, material available at the Local History Day 2011, information provided by descendants and a 1914 newspaper article about a collection made by tenants of Royal Brewery pubs for the Prince of Wales' National Relief Fund. Vic Rosewarne provided a further and substantial contribution during 2017 in the form of licence transfers and lists of pubs operating in 1861, 1882 and 1900.

If you can provide any updates to people names, pub names or dates, please get in touch.

Directory entries are often of the form 'Smith, John beer retailer', ie no street or beer house name. I have included New Brentford (NB) or Old Brentford (OB) in the address column where known. In earlier directories Kew Bridge Road does not appear as an address, instead this area was simply recorded as High Street, Old Brentford.

Information included:

• Surname: spelling varied, eg Acrell and Ackrill appear to be the same family and in a very few cases (such as Acrell) I have standardised spellings; look out for variations such as Weatherley and Wetherley; occasionally a forename is included; there may be more about a family running a High Street establishment in the Property section
• Pub: could be a beer house, public house, hotel, inn or tavern; pub names changed: see Pubs A-Z to find out more; if no name is known the trade directory description is given - often 'Beer Retailer'
• Address: corner beer houses may be given the address of either road; roads changed name during the period covered: eg Drum Lane became Ealing Road; where an establishment is long standing and there is continuity of use, I have included the exact address (eg 366 High St) for earlier entries where the address may be listed as just 'High St' or even 'Old Brentford'
• From: date, see list of sources above; where '1850s' the date is in the 1850-1859 period
• To: date, as 'From'; where 'From' and 'To' are the same year an entry has been found in just one census or trade directory

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Published June 2011; last updated January 2023

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