A History of Preston
in Hertfordshire
The ‘Red Lion’
There is an in-
Also, whilst the first specific reference to a public house being there was in 1832, when the building was advertised for sale in 1847, it was described as an ‘old established public house’ which would indicate that it was probably an inn during the eighteenth century.
1663 -
1664 -
1673 -
? -
1704 -
1714 -
1761 -
1771 -
1793 -
1795 -
1811 -
1811 -
1829 -
1833 -
1844 -
1847 -
1871 -
1897 -
1962 -
1982 -
(Note: The roof line of the Red Lion and the colour of its bricks indicate that there was a small cottage added to the main building to the left as viewed. As the rent of the property was constant since 1664, this may indicate that the smaller cottage was also erected before this time and owned by John Ritches.)
1851 – Charles Swain
1861 – William Brown
1864 – Ebeneezer Foster
1865 – Mr Maxey
1869 – Charles Brown
1875 – Alfred Chalkley
1876 – Simeon Leete
1877 – Jonathan Richardson
1879 – William Olney
1881 – William Dalton
1885 – Alfred William Oliver
1885 – John Howland
1889 – Mrs Catherine Martin
1890 – Christopher Cattel
1992 – Edward Royal Tyzack
1893 – Robert Charles Tranfield
1894 – Douglas Wells Eley
1896 – John Kelly Elgar
1898 – Clement Edward Wightman
1910 – Charles Timothy Anderson
1913 – Herbert Lawrence
1915 – Samuel Hall (Link: S Hall)
1920 – James Edward Hedley
1944 – Mrs Martha Hedley
1945 – Frederick Stevens
1947 – Alfred J and Kate Massey
1971c – Godfrey and Lilian, then Nita King
1980 – Ernest Mole
1982 – John Gallagher
1983 – Roy and Cathy Hart
1984 – John Martin
1986 – Alex and Carole Korodi
1996 – Philip Cross
2001c – Timothy H and Jane Hunter
Now – Ray and Jo Lambe
1847
An old established public house substantially built with two sitting rooms, shop, taproom, kitchen, excellent cellarage and five bed rooms. It had numerous outbuildings, a plentiful supply of water, a productive garden with fruit tree and two enclosures of pasture measuring 4 ½ acres.
1898
A brick slated house with cellars, bar, taproom, parlour, kitchen, scullery, three bedrooms, two attics, and a wood and thatched barn.
1980c
Red brick darker with random blue headers in Flemish-
Historical descriptions of the Red Lion
Licensees/Managers of the ‘Red Lion’
Cottages on the south side of Preston Green
Maps of the south side of Preston Green: top, left -
Red Lion
Kenwood Cottage
The Club House
Laburnum Lodge
Kenwood Cottage
Left to right: ‘Kenwood Cottage’, ‘The Club House’ and ‘Laburnum Lodge’
In 1910, it comprised a living room, kitchen, scullery and two bedrooms. It had a wood and slated barn. It was owned by TG Fenwick of Temple Dinsley and in ‘good repair’.
Occupiers:
1871 -
1891 -
1910 -
1911 -
1951 -
‘Kenwood Cottage’ was built in the middle of the nineteenth century, probably by the Dartons.
It is a two storey cottage constructed in red brickwork with a hipped slate roof.
The Club House and Laburnum Lodge
It is difficult to determine when ‘The Club House’ and the adjacent ‘Laburnum Lodge’ were built. A survey in 1973 recorded that they were both constructed in the seventeenth century (indeed there is a spine beam in ‘Laburnum Lodge’ with the date 1653 inscribed).
The evidence of the manorial records is somewhat vague, but the ownership of the two properties appears to rest with the Joyner family for more than a century, until 1794. (It is hard to construct a Joyner family tree as many were Baptists and their births and burials do not therefore appear in the parish registers of St Mary’s, Hitchin).
The Joyners (somewhat appropriately) were carpenters and wheelwrights and it may
be that a Daniel Joyner -
The two homes are not recorded in the 1664 Survey of Temple Dinsley but are mentioned
in 1713 and in the Survey of 1714, when they had a combined rent of 1/-
John Joyner, a cordwainer of Hitchin, bequeathed the property as follows in 1732 (summarised): I give my wife, Woolmerdine, my three freehold houses, heretofore but one cottage and orchard situate and being at Preston in the parish of Hitchin in the occupation of Anne Serjeant and Elizabeth Heath and now or late of John Cain, Widow Anscin (sic) and Thomas Barker. After my wife’s death, I give the cottages to my brother, Daniel Joyner.
The Club House: 1797 -
Daniel Joyner died in 1797 and left ‘The Club House’ to Elizabeth, the wife of John
English, manorial rent 6d. The Preston Survey of around 1811 and the Temple Dinsley
Survey of 1816 show John English as the owner/occupier of ‘The Club House’, but Elizabeth
English died in 1822 and three years later, in 1825, Daniel Wilstead (aka Wilson)
was the occupier though the owner was still, ‘English’ -
In 1871, the miller, Amos Sheppard, and his wife Elizabeth were living in the cottage
-
I have referred to this cottage as ‘The Club House’ -
Laburnum Lodge, aka (from 2014)
In 1797, Daniel Joyner bequeathed Laburnum Lodge to Sarah, the wife of James Andrews. Like ‘The Club House’, it also had a manorial rent of 6d. The Rates Book of 1806 and the Preston Survey of around 1811 show James Andrews as both the owner and occupier of Laburnum Lodge but by 1825, the property had been purchased by the Dartons and its tenant was Thomas Winch, who was still residing there in 1851 (‘past work’ and depending on the parish).
When the Temple Dinsley Estate was sold in 1873, ‘Laburnum Lodge’ was occupied by
the families of farm labourers, James Jenkins and Joseph Harvey. Eleven years later,
in 1884 a weather-
‘Laburnum Lodge’, Preston’s Post Office with Miss Louisa Smith outside. Note the barn far right.
By 1910, the tenancy had passed to the gardener, Joseph Peters (69). His daughters, Bertha and Annie were also living there and this was to be their home until the late 1960’s. RDV Pryor was now the owner. He had built ’The Laburnums’ (aka Pryor House) in the 1890’s. It is probable that during this decade, ‘Laburnum Cottage’ was so christened. In 1910, it was described as a ‘brick and tiled cottage with two living rooms, a kitchen, scullery and three bedrooms’ and as being in ‘fair condition’. The barn was noted as ‘wood and corrugated’.
Soon after 1910, the barn was demolished and a new cottage added to the west end
of ‘Laburnum Lodge’ -
For at least the last six decades, ‘The Club House’ and ‘Laburnum Lodge’ have existed as one composite property. Occupiers:
1951 -
1971 -
1981 -
1987 -
In 1973, ‘The Club House’ was described as: ‘C17 and later; one storey and attics;
red brick gable end to front; band below gable and above ground floor; wood casements
in cambered heads; roof tiled. ‘Laburnum Lodge’: C17 and later; timber-
‘Laburnum Lodge’ has recently been described thus: “House. C17 or earlier, east crosswing
c.1700, higher west part C19 (Note: demonstrably not so -
Recent side and rear views of ‘Laburnum Lodge’
‘Pryor House’ aka ‘The Laburnums’
The Laburnums
‘The Laburnums’ was built by Ralston de Vins Pryor in the 1890s. In 1910 it was noted as a ‘brick and tiled house with a drawing room, dining room, kitchen, scullery, laundry room and wc on the ground floor and a bathroom and four bedrooms on the first floor. In 1915, Mr Pryor’s brother, Gerard Pryor, was renting part of the first floor.
After RDV Pryor’s death in 1945, the house was owned by David FG and Elizabeth Sadler
in 1951, while there was evidently a caravan in the grounds which was home to Robert
and Elizabeth Collett. Five years later, its residents were Stewart and Rosemary
E McConville who probably re-
Cottages on the North Side of Preston Green
Cottages on the South side of Preston Green
For almost a century, Fig Tree Cottage (134, 1576 and 3765 above) and its adjoining neighbour, Vine Cottage (133,1575 and 3767 above), were bundled together and shared common owners:
1664 -
1665 -
1681 -
1685 -
1701 -
1714 -
1742 -
From the second half of the eighteenth century, Fig Tree Cottage and Vine Cottage had different owners.
Fig Tree Cottage:
1773 -
1798 -
Wain Wood from at least 1739 -
all of this time.)
1804 -
the cottages to Thomas but that this transaction was not surrendered to the Court . Fig Tree Cottage
was now known as ‘that cottage with the wheelwright and blacksmith’s shop,
barn, yard, garden and orchard lying and being at Preston Green’ with
a rent of 3/6d. (Vine Cottage rent, 2/6 -
of 6/-
1807 -
1811 -
1825 -
century) and it was occupied by Thomas Wilstead, wheelwright (born 1781c)
1844 -
unchanged since 1825
1835 -
1861 -
grocer/butcher. The 1884 sketch map shows the building beside the road (see maps above) as a carpenter’s shed and that the building to the north of the shed, was a barn.
1880s -
In 1910, the Inland Revenue Survey noted that Fig Tree Cottage was owned by Miss E Wilshire of Welwyn and comprised a brick and tiled cottage with living room, kitchen, scullery, pantry and three bedrooms. It was in poor condition.
1911 -
1971 -
1981 -
1987 -
1996 -
It has recently been assessed thus: “C16 former open hall house, floor and chimney
inserted in late C16, south bay with its rear outshut probably C17, C18 brick casing
of walls with wall heightened in framing to 2-
2-
Fig Tree Cottage
Vine Cottage
Vine Cottage
For almost a century until 1742, ‘Vine Cottage’ and ‘Fig Tree Cottage’ had common owners. See Link: Fig Tree Cottage.
Vine Cottage:
? -
1766 -
1778 -
1797 -
1802 -
1808 -
1811c -
1819 -
1825 -
The carpenter’s shop B is now a home occupied by Joseph Peters. This cottage will be referred to
as ‘Peter’s Cottage’. (Note from the map below, there is no connecting building between the two
properties in around 1811.)
A
B
1836 -
Henry Swainton/Swinston) and B ‘Peter’s Cottage’ (which had been converted by William Sheaf from a carpenter’s shop into two cottages and which were occupied by John and Joseph Peters, shoemaker).
1844 -
1861 -
1871 -
1873 -
1870s -
1910 -
1920s -
1950 -
(Link: Bill Stanley). Thus, three generations of one family occupied ‘Vine Cottage’ for almost 120 years.
2001 -
B
A
‘Vine Cottage ‘ has been described thus:
1973 -
‘House. Early C18. Red brick in Flemish-
Rear of ‘Vine Cottage’ in 1965
Peters’ Cottage and Village Shop
I have coined the name ‘Peters’ Cottage’ for this property as Joseph Peters ran his shoemaking business here for the majority of the nineteenth century. The story of how this was converted from a carpenter’s shop to a home is told above at this link: Peters’ Cottage.
However, it is possible that this property was inhabited before this conversion.
From 1797, the run of entries in rates books indicate that there was a home between
William Swain’s holding on the south side of Blacksmiths Lane and Vine Cottage. It
had an annual rental value of 2/-
Joseph and Sarah (nee Joyner) Peters and family lived in this cottage until 1883. As well as Joseph’s shoemaking business, Sarah ran a Plaiting School from this property. (Link: Peters) By 1898, ‘Peters’ Cottage’ was Frederick Robinson’s shop and it continued as the village shop well into the twentieth century. Eventually it was demolished and a new shop was built in its place. The shop was associated with the Robinson/Worthington/Stanley dynasty until the late 1990s
.
Cottages:
Church Lane
1811c 1844 1898