53 High Street, Melbourn

53 / 55 High Street, The Anchor, Melbourn

History of 53 / 55 High Street, Melbourn

Listed building:

House, formerly The Anchor public house. C16. Timber framed roughcast rendered and tiled roof with later end stacks. Wing at rear now forms an L plan.

In c.1840 it was owned by Thomas Dickason Titchmarsh and occupied by Mynott Titchmarsh, farmer. It became the Anchor P.H. in 1840’s when Mynott Titchmarsh moved to a farmstead in fields after enclosure.

In 2022, K B sent this email: My great grandfather Frederick B Marcks was publican at The Anchor and ran it with his wife Polly from about 1931 until the beginning of the WW2. Frederick had been in the army all his life and ran the pub in his retirement. When the war started he moved to Hornchurch where he ran a flying officers mess for the duration of the war. There was an old two story sized rectangular dove cote at the end of the garden which was demolished at a later date. Beyond the garden were two fields, one for growing vegetables and the other with a permanent built marquee for weddings etc. The main house was built from clunch, chalky limestone bricks cut from nearby open clunch pits.