Queen’s Head, Newton

History of the Queen's Head Newton

Listed building:

Public house, early C18 extended later in C18, and in C19 and C20. Red brick, Flemish bond, with half-hipped, tiled roof and later side stack.

In 1987, J Hall wrote in ‘About Newton – the Five Went Ways,’: Within living memory it was sometimes the case that farm workers could only go and stand outside the Queen’s Head, lacking the money to enter and buy drinks.A small cottage in the yard housed the village library, the books given by the Hurrell family in connection with their Evening School.

1725 Act of Parliament which placed road from Ware to Cambridge under a Turnpike Trust.

1728-1729: Michael King of Newton

1730 two milestones erected in Newton

1731-1738 John Rule of Newton

1753-1779 Anthony Allcock of Newton

1787-1789 Thomas Mitchell

1802 earliest known description of pub as ‘Queens Head together with the Cottage House, Outhouses, Barns, Stables, Shops, Yard, Garden, Orchard.’

1807-1826 Edward Ashby

1827 licensee Edward Ashby failed to pay rent to John Phillips. Ashby’s fixtures were auctioned off and a list can be found together with an inventory of the articles belonging to John Phillips.

1827-1828 Thomas Kidman. Pub had stabling for five horses.

1834 a list of the extensive repairs required at the Queens Head by Thomas Kidman survives.

1847-1865 John Howard

1879 Peter Stubblefield

1892-1908 Mortimer Smith. By the end of the 19th century the small cottage in the yard housed the village library.

1916 Miss V J Smith

1922-1926 Mrs Caroline Smith

1929-1933 Miss V J Smith

1948 John Morris

1954 Sidney Bowditch

1960 Norman Mills

1962 Clifford Henry Short

1971 David Martin Valentine Short

Sources: Recognizances for Victuallers, trade directories etc (researched by Jessie Hall in About Newton – The Five Went Ways)