Walkern Robin Hood

[spriggins]

My ancestor James Spriggins has been reported to have built the public house called Robin Hood in Walkern, Hertfordshire.

Can anyone point me in the right direction to find out everthing about this pub, and where to find proof of this if any.

Thank you

George

[Clive Blackaby]

George,

Do you have an approximate date?

I'll be looking at Walkern P.R. shortly, so may be able to pick up some info for you

Clive

[spriggins]

Thank you Clive for your reply..

I believe that the date would have been around 1820.

George

[Clive Blackaby]

Extract from Hertfordshire Inns & Public Houses, found on Chris Reynolds' excellent site

[The book describes premises still operating in about 1990] In addition to the three surviving houses discussed below, there were three others licensed by 1899 which have since closed. First of these to go was the King's Cross, privately owned by Mr F Cotton-Browne of Walkern Park and situated east of Walkern on a minor road just south of Bassus Green, at the corner of the lane leading to Walkern Park. The King's Cross was licensed as an alehouse at least as early as 1897 and is listed in Kelly's 1899 Directory with G. Allen as licensee, but it probably closed soon afterwards. The Three Horseshoes was a beerhouse in the High Street which survived at least until 1919 when it was owned by Simpsons of Baldock. The Red Lion, an alehouse owned by S.Wright & Co. of Walkern, has not been traced before 1897, but it did not close until 1955.

ROBIN HOOD
63 High Street
Earliest known reference 1877
Beerhouse: beer & wine 1947, full licence 1953
Discovery Leisure
Built in about 1810 by James Spriggins of Walkern, purchased in 1877 by Fordham, brewers of Ashwell, and licensed to George Baldock. John Phillips was the licensee in 1899.

[spriggins]

Thank you Clive for your reply and your time, the web site link.

George

[Clive Blackaby]

George,

The registers for Walkern (film 991399) up to 1680 are very difficult to read, and a bit to early for what I needed, so I started at 1680 and found quite a few Spriggins'
I was looking specifically for events in 1780 - 1800 for myself, so when it got to half hour before closing time I skipped a few years. I'll go back to those next week.
1680 to 1735 records are a sheer delight - beautifully copied out by a caring parish clerk.
After that they start to get a bit scruffy.

You may have some of these from IGI, but a lot are not on there. In particular there are no mariages on IGI and very few on the film, but I will pick up the Banns for you.

The forum text editor keeps wrecking the list, duplicating bits of it, so I'll mail the details to you

[Clive Blackaby]

I'll send some more Spriggens records from the Walkern Herts p.r. by email, but thought this one worth mentioning in the forum - it provided a bit of entertainment at the FHL this evening

John, son of John and Sarah Spriggens baptised June 4th 1809 X

The X was to indicate a footnote (of which there are very few in this register, so the man obviously made an impression)

X "John Spriggens known universally by the name Bats. He followed the trade of a Mason when sober enough"

It's little things like that which make it so rewarding going back to the originals or films rather than relying on IGI etc. :)

[spriggins]

That page I have a photocopy of, but saying that another page mentions his son John also later nicknamed BATS, no one can dispute the connection there.

The term BATS as I am aware was given to Half a brick, a few spriggins were either bricklayers or cordwainers.