The Birch at Woburn - Woburn - Bed's - Pictorial Pub Signs on Waymarking.com

Description:-The SILVER BIRCH is a graceful and attractive tree with its light airy foliage and distinctive white peeling bark. An inspiration to writers poets and artists throughout the centuries.
also known as Beith [Gaelic and Old Irish] Begh[Irish] Paper Birch [Wiltshire] Ribbon tree[ Lincolnshire]. The Latin name is BETULA PENDULA.


Bark and twig
Bark description White and papery bark with black cracks or fissures
Twig Description Purple-brown with rough white spots on the shoots. The spots are particularly prominent on twigs that are in the sun .

Birch at Woburn: Newport Road, Woburn

The earliest reference to this public house in a document at Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service is in Kelly's Directory for 1861, although Samuel Foxley is listed as a beer seller in Northampton [i.e. Newport Pagnell] Road in 1853, which may indicate the establishment began as a beerhouse, becoming a public house in or before 1861.

The public house was owned by the Fowlers of Woburn and the site was also their brewery. Both were sold, together with 25 other public houses and beerhouses in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire at auction in 1881. At that time the brewery is described as consisting of a brick and slate malthouse with 35 quarter steep, two cemented working floors, double kiln with wire plates, stokeholes and malt lofts; there was also a maltster's cottage and piece of ground, yard, detached two floor malt chamber and cottage occupied by brewery servant. The Birchnmoor Arms is described as having a tap room, bar, parlour, with a cellar under, kitchen, four bedrooms, yard opening to road, washhouse, stabling for four horses, brick and slate skittle shed. The sale particulars do not note who bought both brewery and public house but for at least part of its history it was owned by P.Phipps & Company (Northampton & Towcester Breweries) Limited.

In 1988 the public house was sold, with other properties, by Manns & Norwich Brewery Company Limited to Heron International. Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service has little other documentation except for the rating valuation made in 1927 under the 1925 Valuation Act. At this date the owner was Phipps & Company and the tenant John Thomas Turrell. The rent was £16 per annum. The building consisted of a bar parlour ("fair"), tap room ("fair"), bar ("small"), smoke room ("fair"), lounge ("tiled floors"), kitchen and pantry and scullery ("used as workroom") downstairs, with no cellar; upstairs were six bedrooms and a bathroom. Outside were two barns, 2 WCs,a trap shelter and old malt store. Trade consisted of selling 1½ barrels of beer per week, a dozen bottles of beer per week and a dozen bottles of spirits per month. The valuer noted "Seems a house of call for lorries. Cement rendered. Fairly modern. Good pull up". he also noted that the tenant's brother used a small portion of the buildings outside as a boot repair shop, otherwise the buildings outside were practically unused.

The old public house is now a restaurant called The Birch at Woburn.


List of Sources Held at Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service:

- WL1000/10/1/1: auction sale particulars of brewery in Woburn and 26 public houses formerly of James Fowler of Woburn, brewer: 1881;- X21/760/5: postcard: late C19/early C20;
- Z1105/1: Liquor Licence Traders Survey Form: 1948;
- WL1000/7/GLIN/1/26: conveyance, with other premises, from Manns & Norwich Brewery Company Limited to Heron International NV: 5 Apr 1988;
- PCWoburn30/11: transfer of licence: 1991;
- PCWoburn30/13: transfer of licence: 1992;
- PCWoburn30/23: transfer of licence: 1995;
- PCWoburn18/9/1: panning application, plans and elevations: 1995

List of Licensees: note that this is not a complete list.
?(1853: Samuel Foxley);
1861-1864: Francis Tompkins;
1869: Thomas Tomkins;
1876: Mrs.Stonhill;
1877: William Stonhill;
1885-1902: Mrs.Emma Stonhill;
1902-1903: John Geeves;
1903-1906: Frederick Summers;
1906-1909: William Brook;
1909-1917: William Linney;
1917-1927: John Thomas Turrell;
1927-1934: Thomas William Ingham;
1934: William Reginald Whittaker;
1934-1942: Frederick John Miles;
1942-1947: Leonard George Potter;
1947-1953: Arthur Richard Kay Potter;
1965: Sidney Eric Woodward;
1969: Nicholas Gordon Pinnock;
1971: Daphne Katherine Pinnick;
1978: Robert Frederick Sheward;
1982: Albert Phillips;
1983: Margaret Jane Phillips;
1991: Pietrino Dino;
1991: Mairead Keswani and Morad Mahmoud Hikal;
1992: Mairead Keswani, Morad Mahmoud Hikal, Deborah Ann Sparrow;
1995: Anfor Ali and Ahad Ali

above details from Bedfordshire & Luton Archives & Records Service:

Name of Artist: not stated Date of first pub on site: 1853 Date of current sign: Not listed

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