The Prince of Wales public house reopened in brightly painted and refurbished style on the 5 March with the declared aim of being a not-for-profit enterprise as part of the Hastings Project, a community brewery. The style is simple with no music, and the décor is the same inside and out: dark green and a kind of off white. Their offerings include beers brewed for them but to their own recipes.
This post covers some events and publicans over the years, and does not claim to be thorough, and ends with just after World War II. My source was mainly newspapers and the censuses.
One problem in researching its history was that its address was not settled for a long time. Being at the corner of Western Road and Cross Street did not help, as some sources cite one street and some another. The front door is literally at the corner. The other door, just visible on the left in the photo, is a glass door marked ‘Jug Department’, referring to the out trade to juveniles discussed in my post The Intoxicating Liquors (Sale to Children) Act of 1901: the reaction of St Leonards landlords. That post includes a photo of the door before restoration: I believe it to be the only such door still in existence in the whole town. Eventually the address settled down as 15 Western Road.
The 1851 census does not mention either Western Road or that portion which later housed the pub, Melbourne Place.
David Russell’s Register of Licensees for Hastings & St Leonards, 1500-2010 [referred to as ‘Russell’ later on in this post] cites a George Sutton as the licensee in 1855, and a George Stone in 1858. At the time Western Road was evolving as a service road with stables, workshops and the like for, to the east, the grand houses of Warrior Square, and to the west, the shops of London and Gensing Station (later named Kings) roads.
The first newspaper mention I am aware of was in the Hastings and St Leonards News, 18 February 1859:
INFRINGEMENT OF LICENSE. – George Stone, landlord of the Prince of Wales beer shop, Cross street, Western road, St Leonards, was summoned for opening his house for the sale of beer on Sunday, the 30th ult., at five minutes to ten in the morning.
Police-constable Raymond having given evidence, the landlord received a caution, and the summons was dismissed.
It was a beer shop and therefore could not legally sell spirits or wines, both of which were separate licences. It was hard to get those licences, as the local magistrates could be quite exacting, but it was easy to get a beer licence. By the Beerhouse Act 1830 a payment of two guineas a year to the Excise enabled the sale of beer or cider on or off the premises. The only other requirements were that the applicant had to be a local ratepayer and for a certificate of good character signed by six local ratepayers.
This meant a continual flow of money to the Excise. The magistrates again had authority with the passing of the Wine and Beerhouse Act 1869, and like fully licensed public houses had to reapply annually for their licences. To some degree the already existing beerhouses were protected from closure until 1903.
In the 1861 census the Prince of Wales’s address was 9 Melbourne Place. The household consisted of John Wright, married, 35, publican, born Bexhill; his wife Ann, 33, born Berkshire; four children, aged 4 to 11, all born St Leonards; plus 15-year-old general servant Eliza Eldridge, also born St Leonards, and a coach painter as a lodger.
Few surviving planning applications survive, but one that does is DH/C/6/1/691, approved on the 11 September 1863, for a window, and is kept at the archive at The Keep, Falmer. It is indexed as relating to the Prince of Wales pub, 15, Western Road. I have not looked at any of the applications at The Keep.
An early local directory, Mathieson’s for the years 1867/68, lists John Snelling as a beer retailer at Melbourne Place but at no. 8 instead of the previous no. 9. Russell, who seems to have relied on surviving official records, lists him there for 1871 to 1885, though as we shall see that seems wrong. In the 1861 census he had been an ostler at 1 Eversfield Mews, Western Road. An ostler who was a groom who worked for say an hotel or a large stable.
Snelling turned up in the newspapers on the 13 December 1867, again in the Hastings & St Leonards News, with the unfortunate headline of AN ABUSIVE LANDLORD:
John Snelling, beer-house keeper, of Cross Street, appeared in a summons for having used obscene, profane, and abusive language in Cross street.
Defendant – It was not in Cross street.
Sergeant Raymond – It was in Western road.
The summons was amended.
Sergeant Raymond stated that he had visited defendant’s house, at a quarter after eleven o’clock on Saturday night, and told him it was time to clear out. Defendant was drawing beer. He became very abusive and followed witness outside, where he used several expressions of a violent and exceedingly vulgar character.
Defendant – I admit I said it. He gave me reason to do it, because he said it was a quarter-past eleven o’clock, when it was only ten minutes past.
Mr Hayles – That is not a sufficient reason.
Fined 5 and costs, 11s; in default, fourteen days’ imprisonment.
Brett’s St Leonards & Hastings Gazette in its 28 December edition reported on the same in facetious fashion, almost certainly written by the celebrated Brett himself:
PARAGRAMATIC POLICE NOTES.
Same date [12 December]. – JOHN SNELLING, a “beery” landlord of a beerhouse in Cross street, and a cross grained subject to boot, was fined a crown, with 11s costs, merely because he blackguarded a bobby who had the impudence to tell Johnny Snelling it was 15 minutes past eleven, when it was only ten minutes past that identical hour. Johnny evidently thought that swearing and cursing was better than lying, but he seemed to be lying under a mistake, and was therefore “taken in and done for,” and no mistake.
In the 1871 census, for 9 Melbourne Place, John Snelling was a 48-year-old publican born in New Romney, living with his wife Elizabeth, from Hythe. They had four sons and a daughter, the two oldest sons being Edward, 21, a plumber, and George, 19, a carpenter. There was also Jane Waddell, 21, a general servant.
A dramatic attempt to close the pub down was revealed in the Hastings and St Leonards Independent, 11 June 1878:
“A MISERABLE SPY FROM LONDON.” – John Cornelius, landlord of the Prince of Wales beerhouse, St Leonards, was summoned for having, on the 22nd January, retailed a gill of whisky and a gill of rum without taking out a licence… Mr John, in opening the case… called William Rodwell, living at 14, Wellington-road, Hackney, who said that on the 22nd of January last he went, in company with a man named Gray, to the defendant’s house and took a bed there. In the evening there were some people playing cards, in which Gray joined. About eleven or half-past eleven o’clock defendant was asked if there was not something else besides beer to drink. Defendant then produced some rum from a cupboard in the room and Gray drank some of it. He drank a glass of whisky, which was also produced by the landlord at Gray’s request, in consequence of his declining the rum. He (witness) gave 6d to Gray for the whisky, and saw him pass it to the landlord. The rum was paid for in the game. – In cross-examination Rodwell admitted that he was a grocer in London and came down with Gray to go round the beerhouses. He had done little in the “private inquiry’ way, but never took to it…
Mr Goodman speaking for Cornelius said that the defendant had lived in town 30 years. For many years he got a living honestly and fairly as a gentleman’s servant, and having saved a little money he took a public-house which he kept for six or seven years. He had since taken this house, and no charge had ever been brought against him. If he had broken the law the Chief Superintendent of Police of this borough would have brought him to justice, without the help of a ‘miserable spy from London’.
The evidence had been brought to the attention of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, who then felt compelled to prosecute. Presumably the local publicans had paid the ‘spies’ in order to remove the illegal competition. The magistrates decided not to convict on the evidence of just one witness and dismissed the case. The decision was followed by loud applause in the body of the hall, an ebullition of feeling which was, of course, stated to have been ‘suppressed’… just as in the famous trial in Alice in Wonderland.
John Cornelius had an interesting background. As Goodman said, he had been a gentleman’s servant – in fact a butler, who hence knew his way around a cellar.
In the 1851 census he had been at 5 West Ascent. His employer was the family of William Davies, a former Captain in the 2nd Dragoon Guards. He was a footman, aged 26, born in Hertfordshire, one of four servants for the family of six.
Unusually for a footman he had married, in 1848 in London, as a servant who was son of a servant, his wife daughter of a carpenter. As was usual at the time his family lived elsewhere: Charlotte, age 32, was at nearby 6 Undercliff with their son William, aged 2, in a house containing twelve persons. She had promoted herself to ‘butler’s wife’ although only the enumerator would have seen the census return.
In the 1861 census he was at 20 Eversfield Place, butler to the Rev. George St Quentin, clergyman without souls (i.e. no specific parish or church), and his wife Georgina. Again John was one of four servants. His wife had moved from no. 6 to no. 3 Undercliff, and now there were two boys.
The pub referred to which he had previously run was the Nag’s Head, Gensing Road, where he was the licensee for about 1867 to 1872. At last in the 1871 census his family were there, together (it was required in those days to live on the premises), with a blacksmith son and seven lodgers. The Nag’s Head was fully licenced, so it was a step down to move to a beerhouse.
Also mysterious is that in the 1880/81 directory John Snelling was again listed as the publican. As for the Cornelius family, in the 1881 and 1891 censuses they were running a beerhouse at 28 Pelham Place, Hastings.
So, back to Mr Snelling. In the 1881 census, at 15 Western Road, he was a livery stable keeper, his son a plumber. There is no evidence that the premises served drinks except that the sole servant, Henry Soan, aged 17, was a potman – whose role was to collect empty glasses.
On the 14 July 1883 the Hastings Observer had the following advert:
BATH CHAIR FOR SALE; equal to new; Monk maker; silver plated joints and fittings; bicycle wheels and all latest improvements; selling through ill-health; price £27; cost £39. – Apply Mr Snelling, Western road, St Leonards, where it can be seen.
A bath chair was a contraption which could be either towed or pushed, with invalid or tired gentry lying back in it. A number of men in the vicinity made their living offering to move individuals around for a fee, and they even had their own ‘stands’, like taxi ranks.
Elizabeth Snelling died at the Prince of Wales inn on the 6 May 1885, aged 64. Just ten days later her husband followed her, described as late of Western Road, beer retailer and livery stable keeper. His estate of £312 was dealt with by his surviving executor, Nathaniel Jenner Vaughan, jobmaster – someone who hired out horses.
Vaughan in the 1881 census was of 93 London Road, and was probably brother to William Vaughan, who ran the Saxon Hotel at 14 Grand Parade, which was later rebuilt and became the site of the Bonjour café. Russell cites Nathaniel as the licensee in 1885, perhaps temporarily ‘minding the shop’ until a new licensee was ready – Frederick Snelling, whom Russell cites for 1885 to 1888. He was the third son, and in the 1881 census while his parents and a brother were on the pub premises at 15 Western Road, he was in one of two households at 45 Western Road, aged 22, with his wife Ann and a two-year old daughter. They had married in 1878 at St Clement’s, Hastings, when his father’s occupation was given as beerhouse keeper, her father a mariner. His occupation was that of barman, and it is quite possible that it was he who was managing the Prince of Wales while his father officially held the licence.
During Frederick’s tenure there was another planning application, DH/C/6/1/6014, ‘Office’, which was approved on the 7 May 1887.
In the 1891 census at Bromley, Middlesex, Frederick was a barman again while his wife was a laundress. Meanwhile George Frederick Dawes had taken over the licence, Russell citing him for the years 1889 to 1892.
In the 1891 census at 15 Western Road there was the following household:
George F. Dawes, head, M[arried], 34, beerhouse keeper, born Norfolk Wrenningham
Emily Dawes, wife, M, 35, born Middlesex Marylebone
Kathleen E. Dawes, dau, S[ingle], 7, schoolgirl, born Middlesex Marylebone
Frederick G. Dawes, son, S, 6, schoolboy, born Middlesex Pimlico
Ada J. Dawes, dau, S, 3, born Sussex Hastings
Edith F. Dawes, dau, S, 3 mo, born Sussex St Leonards
The couple had married in 1883 in Knightsbridge when he was a butler, son of a relieving officer, she daughter of a porter.
When Ada received an Anglican baptism, 12 February 1888, at Emmanuel church, Hastings, the address was 46 Plynlimon Road. By the 1901 census the family had moved to Islington, Middlesex, he a coachman, living with his mother in law.
Russell next cites Frederick Horswell as the licensee for 1892-93, but the 1893 Pike’s directory lists F. Kerswell running the Prince of Wales. About the same time – 7 July 1893 – there was another planning application, ‘Alterations’, as DH/C/6/1/5463. However he swiftly moved on as he became a bankrupt. The London Gazette, 8 September 1893:
Frederick Samuel Kerswell. Now residing at 31, Milward-road, Hastings, lately residing at the Prince of Wales’ beerhouse, Western-road, St Leonards, formerly 80, Mount-road, Clive Vale, Hastings. Clerk, formerly Beerhouse Keeper and Bank Clerk. Hastings Court. Date of order and petition, September 6th.
Also on the 8th September the Hastings and St Leonards News announced, without giving any names, that the licence had been transferred of ‘a beerhouse in Western Road.’
The News in its 13 October 1893 edition finally gives some financial information, and the extent of its trade, for the Prince of Wales in its summary of his proceedings before the Hastings Bankruptcy Court at the Town Hall:
A BEERHOUSE KEEPER. – Frederick S. Kerswell, lately proprietor of the Prince of Wales beerhouse, Western Road, St Leonards, appeared for his public examination. – His evidence showed that he was a bank clerk for 12 years, but that on an alteration being made with the staff at Lloyds, he became beerhouse keeper, borrowing £200 from his father-in-law. He was to pay £290 for the Prince of Wales and he left £90 as a loan on the lease which never came into his possession. He sold about seven barrels of beer a week and he estimated his gross profit at 6s a barrel. The business never paid and on coming out he owed his brewer £115. – The examination closed.
The £200 loan from his father in law was equivalent to about £24,000 today.
He had married in 1890 at Christ Church, Ore, as a 26-year-old bank clerk, son of a Sergeant Major, Fannie Harman, the daughter of a gentleman. He had been born in St Leonards, the first such I believe of the landlords. He spent the rest of his life in Hastings, was appointed in 1900 chief clerk and collector for the local electricity company (and embezzled £10 from them in 1909) and as late as 1939 he was an advertising canvasser in his seventies.
The next licensee as listed in Pike’s directory for 1894 to 1917 was Edward Pretty. He had married Ellen Eldridge in 1888 at Canterbury, and in the 1891 census they were living at the Railway Bell in Tunbridge Wells, as barman and barmaid, working for her brother in law Joseph Fletcher, the publican. Edward was aged 26, born Wingham, Kent, and incorrectly named Edwin, but I am sure it is the right man.
In the 1901 census Edward was the licensed victualler of the Prince of Wales with his wife Ellen, and no other occupants.
The 1911 census was the first to give the number of rooms in each household, when the pub had eight rooms. Edward was bar house keeper, assisted by his wife in the business. Very intrusive questions were asked in the return: how long married (23 years), how many children (one), if still alive (no).
Pike’s directory for 1918-19 lists E.J. Hillyard. In 1916 he had taken over the Prince Alfred, which was situated opposite the Old England, and where there is now the Crystal Square car park. This was Ernest James Hillyard, who in 1918 was a voter with Lesley Hillyard at 15 Western Road.
The 1920-21 editions list H. Mackellow, and it is presumably his relatives who were the ‘absent voters’ in the Autumn 1919 electoral register. This was a way of giving the vote to soldiers away on active duty. They were Albert Henry Mackellow, Captain in the Liverpool Regiment, and Walter Patrick Mackellow, Gunner in the Royal Field Artillery. A brother of H[arry] Mackellow was Gunner Frederick Mackellow, who died of wounds on the 17 July 1917 in France as a member of the 121st Siege Battery. Through their mother a half brother had already died in World War I. This was Peter James Pratt, of the Gloucester Regiment, believed to have been killed in action on the Somme on the 16 August 1916.
In the 1921 census there was again the question about the number of rooms, which had shrunk since 1911 from eight to six. Harry Mackellow was aged 46, born Sedlescombe, licensed victualler, living with his wife Frances Sarah, 45, engaged in home duties. In the 1901 census he had been at Woolwich, a driver in the Royal Horse Artillery. In the 1891 census his father Edward was running the Coach and Horses public house at Sedlescombe.
In 1922 the licence changed again, to William Charles Bedford. In the 1921 census he had been at Coulsdon, Surrey, a confectioner and tobacconist, aged 38, born London, with wife Sybil and three children including 15-year-old son William Ulric, aged 15, also born London.
With the planning application approved on the 5 June 1925, ‘Alterations’, DH/C/6/1/9574, we finally get the name of the brewery. The Hastings Observer the next day in listing recent planning applications cited Shepherd Neame as the owner, the architect being local man P.H. Oxley.
On the 25 April 1928, at Holy Trinity, Hastings, William Charles’ son William Ulric, aged 22, a ‘skilled workman’ at the Post Office Engineering Department, of 15 Western Road, son of a retired civil servant, married Dorothy Violet Suggitt, daughter of a bus conductor from Cambridge Road. The Hastings Observer, 5 May, gave an account, stated that the honeymoon was to be at Hove, and that the happy couple was to live at 16 Cornwallis Terrace.
The licence of the ‘Prince of Wales Hotel’ was transferred from the father to William Ulric as reported in the Hastings Observer, 7 July 1928, while in the same issue the father took over the licence of the Freemasons’ Hotel in Hastings.
There was a brief but dramatic account of an incident in the Hastings Observer, 7 September 1935:
MIDNIGHT DISCOVERY. MAN UNCONSCIOUS AT WATER’S EDGE.
A young man, Francis Henry Leslie Stronghill, 34, Taylor-street, Southborough, was found lying unconscious at the water’s edge opposite Eversfield-place, St Leonards, shortly before midnight on Saturday.
Mr W.U. Bedford, licensee of the Prince of Wales Inn, Western-road, St Leonards, was walking along the parade with a friend when he heard a moan from the direction of the beach, and, looking down, saw the man at the water’s edge.
He and his friend went on to the beach, and with help dragged the man, who was unconscious, up the shingle. The tide was about half-way out at the time. Artificial respiration was administered, and the police were summoned.
Mr Bedford told an “Observer” reporter: “It was lucky we saw him, for he would probably have been dead in a few minutes. It is unlikely that he could have been seen, as there were so few people about.”
Stronghill was taken by ambulance to the Royal East Sussex Hospital, where he was detained for a few days.
On the 17 January 1939, as of 15 Western Road, licensed victualler, and a member of the Eastbourne Flying Club, William Ulric obtained pilot’s licence 16942.
On the 30 September 1939, in a street listing of all UK civilians nicknamed the “Register’, William Ulric Bedford and his wife and two apparent daughters of 5 and 10 were living at 8 Cross Street. His occupation as electrician wireman is crossed out and next to it is written what looks like ‘Civil Aid Guard Pilot.’ His wife Dorothy’s occupation was given as ‘Bar work Licensed Pre[mises ?]. Judging from a detailed 1954 Ordnance Survey map this was the portion of the Prince of Wales uphill on Cross Street from the saloon area.
In the same Register his father was at 2 Shepherd Street, the Foresters Arms, as beer house keeper and civil servant retired, while his wife Sybil was carrying out unpaid domestic duties.
Russell lists Frederick [J.] Goodwin as the licensee for 1941 to 1961 and I will end with him. In the same 1939 Register he had been at 14 Western Road, born 1894, general grocer, with wife Emily. He had been born at Hawkhurst, son of a stockman.
The Hastings Observer, 5 August 1944 [which mangles his initials]:
Safe but a prisoner. After having been reported missing from operations in Italy on a night in June, Sergt. James A. Goodwin, R.A.F., aged 23, of St Leonards, is now known to be safe, but a prisoner of war in German hands.
This good news has just been received by his parents, Mr and Mrs J.A. Goodwin, of the “Prince of Wales,” Western-road, St Leonards, on a postcard from their son.
He has been in the R.A.F. for 2 ½ years, prior to which he was an apprenticed fitter on aircraft construction. He was educated at Christ Church and St Mary Magdalen Schools. His parents have lived in the town for 14 years.
The Hastings Observer reported in its 24 January 1948 edition that Frederick James Goodwin the Prince of Wales, holder of a beer licence, intended to apply for a wine licence; and on the 22 January 1949, to apply for a spirits licence.
Apparently the first application succeeded. He had problems, though, with the spirit licence, as reported in the 12 February 1949 edition:
The Chief Constable objected to an application by Mr F.C. Goodwin, licensee of the Prince of Wales, Western-road (beer and wine licence), for a full licence, and it was not granted.
The Chief Constable said alterations to the premises were needed.
Mr Harold Glenister, for the owners said the Chief Constable’s objection related only to comfort. The house complied with the law, which required it to have two rooms available to the public.
Mr E.M. Edwards, a director, said instructions had already been given for decorations to be carried out. Interior fittings were hard to get.
He agreed with Mr Glenister that some tenants liked a bare floor as they were easier to clean. As for benches and forms, some customers preferred them to plush seats.
Mr Goodwin and three of his customers gave evidence as to consumer demand for spirits.
I could not find the reported outcome, but know that he was not given his spirits licence, as a notice by him stating that he would be requesting a spirits licence appeared in the Hastings Observer, 21 January 1950. I do not know the outcome of that hearing either.
The final planning application I will mention is HS/FA/49/00154 by Shepherd Neame which is on Hastings Council’s own website. It was approved on the 2 April 1949. It was for the addition of a lady’s toilet, as shown in red on the site plan given below, and was taken from the rear courtyard, shown to the west of the new toilet.
With the actual plans we finally have the layout of the ground floor, except that the eastern part of the saloon is excluded. Note the position of the scullery, the fuel store, and the diminished yard to make way for the new ladies’ toilet. There already was a gentleman’s toilet: I wonder if a new law required a ladies’ toilet ? Alfred Womersley of 17 Grand Parade was the architect.
Fascinating,my Grandmother was the licensee of the Foresters Arms , Shepherd st during the war. years we left St Leonard’s late 1940/1950s