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From 335 to 350 High Street, Old Brentford

The tithe map shows 16 properties which became numbered 335 to 350. However it has been difficult fitting people into these properties in the census returns prior to the numbering of the High Street in 1876. I've indicated any uncertainties in the details below.

It seems to be a particularly good stretch for surviving records. Access to Archives web site includes the following

• Abstract of the title of The Royal Brewery, Brentford, to freehold premises 340, 341, 342, 343 & 344 High Street, Brentford, date 1907 – 1920
• Abstract of the title of The Royal Brewery, Brentford, to property 347, 348, 349 High Street, Brentford, date 1898 – 1923
• Abstract of title of Miss Agnes Maunder to freehold premises no. 345 High Street, Brentford, date 1878 – 1912
• Extract from will of Richard Rogers, bricklayer of Old Brentford, probate granted 1840 including references to beneficiaries including 2 copyhold houses near the Bull (one of which seems to no. 349)
• Extract from Thomas Rogers will, proved 1878 referring to his sister Martha Runacres

Properties

Notes prepared for numbers 335, 336 - 341, 342, 345, The Running Horses or Prince of Wales (346), 347, 348, 349 and The Bull PH (350); also a list of photos, ephemera and maps

Number 335

Owned by Samuel Sacret, Lanscombe House, Cockington, Torquay when the 1909/10 Valuation took place, rented at £30 per annum ‘a terrace house and shop of three floors and basement…old property’.

Numbers 336 – 341

The owners recorded in the Valuation Records from 1909/10:

• 336-337 Mrs S C Furness, 33 Langshaw Street, Brooks Bar, Old Trafford Manchester
• 338-339 Thomas Pocklington, 20 Lansdowne Road. Holland Park W
• 340-344 H G Gomm, Drayton Court Hotel, Ealing

Number 342

Number 344

In 1851 George Morris, omnibus conductor, shared no. 345 with Jacob Long. Michael Taylor has established that George Morris married Mercy Taylor, the daughter of William Taylor who ran the Bull in 1841.

George Cheesman, fishmonger, lived at no. 344 in 1871 & 1881. By 1890 Alfred Hayes had a cook or book shop here. The 1891 census shows he was born in Overton, Hampshire. Later occupants include William H Thomas, navy, 1901; George Payne, hairdresser, 1913; Frederick William Turner, general shop, 1928. There are no refs to no. 344 in the 1933 and 1940 trade directories.

Number 345

A document dated 1825 relating to this land refers to a lease between Thomas Shackle, Thomas Kane and Peter Basley, bricklayer in 1818. Pallot’s marriage index records an Ealing marriage in 1802 between Peter Basley & Elizabeth Ford.

A widow, Elizabeth Basley is recorded at what was to become no. 345 in 1841 (independent) and 1851 (shoe shopkeeper). Her daughter Eliza had taken over the shoe shop by the time of the 1861 census, although her name is recorded as Beasley. In 1871 Eliza is recorded as a nurse, living on Distillery Road and an Eliza Basley is recorded living at the Almshouses in 1881: her age (62) and birthplace (Brentford) fit, but her status is ‘widow’ in 1881 whereas, if it is the same person, she was unmarried in 1871.

By the 1881 census the High Street numbering had taken place so the picture of who lived where is clearer: no. 345 was shared by 4 households, a total of 9 people. By 1890 Jacob Bamberger, born Germany, was running a bakers from no. 345. He had married Annie Blaise in 1887 and their first two children were born by the time of the census. They had moved on by 1901: Walter Perrin, master baker from Essex was recorded at 345.

The 1909/10 Valuation describes no. 345 as a ‘brick built shop and house on three floors’ with a ‘brick built bakehouse in yard with loft over’. The first floor extended over the passage to the side. The premises were ‘old and out of repair’ and it was noted that £150 had been expended since the death of the owner (Robert Maunder) on 26 Sep 1910.

The Access to Archives web site includes ‘An abstract of title of Miss Agnes Maunder to freehold premises no, 345 High Street 1878 – 1912’ in the North Thames Gas Predecessors collection.

The property is not included in any of the trade directories for 1913, 1928, 1933 and 1940.

The Running Horses or Prince of Wales (346)

In the 1839 Pigot trade directory The Running Horses PH was run by Francis Morum and a Mrs F Morum is recorded in the tithe return as the occupier of this ‘Public House, Stabling & Yard’, which was owned by Thomas Kane. When the 1841 census took place James Starbuck headed a household of 7 here, including an ostler and a servant. James Starbuck is recorded as running The Bull a few doors to the east in the 1839 Pigot directory. It looks as if Francis Morum died between 1839 and 1841 and James Starbuck took over the running of The Running Horses temporarily.

‘An old building, previously housing an inn called 'The Running Horses', name changed between 1840 & 1848, closed ca 1908 & building demolished’ (C)

Thomas Harding was the publican in 1851, Thomas Waters in 1861 (with 6 lodgers), William Thomas Hamblen or Hamblin (1871, 1874), Mrs Mary Hamblen (1881), Thomas William or B. Waight (1890, 1891), Walter Hamblin (1901).

By the time of the 1909/10 Valuation the property was described as ‘semi-detached double-fronted cottage and shop adjoining Running Horse Yard…this is old property’, so no. 346 was no longer a public house but was still owned by Fuller, Smith & Turner, Brewers, Chiswick. The description suggests the property was divided into two small shops. There was a stable at the rear for five horses and a private entrance and gateway in Running Hoses Yard.

Number 347

Number 348

Number 349

The Bull PH (350)

• Assignment of leaseholds dated 26 Feb 1816 for the Bull Inn, Old Brentford and the ‘Black Boy’ New Brentford
• Copy of a lease of the Bull dated 1851 involving Thomas Henry Hope of Berwick (should be Benwick?) , Salop to Fuller, Smith & Turner
• Licence to assign building agreement of 13 June 1883 relating to land at Brentford between Edward Hammond Thompson of Clapham Common, Surrey and William Kates of High Street, Brentford dated 24 Oct 1888
• Form of tender by Joseph Dorey concerning a proposed rebuilding of the Old Bull Inn, High Street, Brentford, for Fuller, Smith & Turner dated 16 Apr 1889.

The Bull lies on the corner of Bull Lane and was owned by John Thomas Hope and occupied by James Starbuck at the time of the tithe return (1839/41); James Starbuck had moved to The Running Horses by the census in June 1841 and William Taylor was running The Bull, heading a household on ten including himself. See details of the two pub-running Taylor or Taylor families in Brentford, including the 1841 census return.

In 1851 Mrs Elizabeth Taylor, William’s widow, was the publican at The Bull. She died in 1852 and was succeeded by her son William Taylor. William junior moved on to run a butchers shop at no. 400 by 1871, by which time the Bull was run by William Kates, who remained here in 1881 – when he headed a household of 14.

Vicki Patching writes ‘My great, great grandmother, Sophia Constance Silver having lost her mum & dad in the same year (1880), moved in with her Aunt & Uncle, Sophia (nee Geary) & William Kates, at 350 High Street (The Bull Inn) where she met her husband, Albert Edward Furness who was a lodger at the Bull Inn. It seems that they all moved to 19 Kew Bridge Road sometime before 1891’.

William Kates was followed at The Bull by Henry Taylor (1890, 1891), who may be the son of William Taylor junior, then Frederick John Tully (1898) and Henry Tully from London (1901).

Fuller, Smith & Turner, Brewers, Chiswick owned The Bull when the 1909/10 Valuation took place.

A lease for 90 years from June 24 1882 had been taken out, involving Edmund Royd of Wootton Hall, Staffordshire, Bart. The accommodation comprised:

• 2nd floor: 3 large bedrooms
• 1st floor: good sized club room, 3 large rooms & WC (all high ceilings and in excellent repair)
• Ground floor: 1 room, 4 public bars, 1 private bar
• Rear: outside washhouse, coal cellar & WC, also disused skittle alley
• Stabling for 8 horses & 1 horse box, small loft over part; also 3 wooden sheds with pantiled roof & pair large double swing gates at side to stabling.

At date of inspection 20 VIII 1914 the whole of the premises were being redecorated internally. Private urinal at side. Repair generally good. Modern drainage with inspection chambers to drains. The gross value was assessed at £2800 and had a High Street frontage of 22’ 8”. The occupier was J Carney.

Later landlords from trade directories: E W Gyngell (1913); Herbert Gill (1928); Edwin Rapley (1933); Edward John Reeve (1940).

The Bull closed around 1961 (B68).

Photos/Ephemera/Maps

Roads Off

Running Horse Yard between numbers 345 and 346. A2A records details of 18 messuages recently erected near the Running Horses (1831): the tithe map shows 17 – 20 properties behind the Running Horses. An entry in the 1909/10 Valuation Records from 1913 indicates there were 16 cottages in Running Horse Yard, existing as at 30 April 1909, since demolished.