Search by topic
- archaeology
- architecture
- bricklayer
- Building of Local Interest
- carpenter
- church
- crime
- dressmaker
- fire
- Great Eastern Railway
- listed building
- medieval
- oral history
- Public House
- Rattee & Kett
- Religious House
- Roman
- scholar
- school
- Then and Now
- tudor
- women
- work
- world war one
- world war two
Search by text
The Chequers, CottenhamThe Chequers, 297 High Street, (War memorial), Cottenham
History of the Chequers
Public house, probably early C18
See Francis Garrett: Cottenham’s Inns and Hostelries
1729
Martha Morling, who owned a cottage here, was granted a liquor licence
1753
Thomas Clarke
1768
Record of Robert Kimpton, blacksmith, assaulting Robert Stukings at the Chequer public house.
1781
Burial of Elizabeth Clarke of ‘ye Checker’. John Chapman licensee.
1812
Elizabeth Chapman licensee
1816 property acquired by Steward Cotton brewers of Cambridge and later they built the present premises.
1820
John Pamplin licensee
1824
John Christmas
1837 premises sold to John Christmas for £1,071. Described as: recently erected house, consisting of parlour, tap room, club room, bar, 5 bedchambers, good cellar and back kitchen, large yard with barn, stable and pump of good water and garden.
1841
John Christmas, 47, farmer
1851
John Christmas, 56, farm of 56 acres innkeeper employing 2 labourers
1861
John Christmas, 69, inn keeper farmer of 70 acres employing 2 men 1 boy, b Horningsea
1863 John Christmas died. His son Edmund ran the house and brewery until 1883.
1871
Sarah Christmas, 73, innkeeper, b Cottenham
1878
See Francis Garrett, Cottenham Ablaze:
8.3.1878: one house and four farms were destroyed on the site of the Chequers Inn, the rear of Mr Gawthrop (butcher) and on the opposite side of Denmark Road.
Buildings of Young Rose (butcher) were destroyed and then, on the other side of Denmark Road, the barn of Jonathan Piggott. The house of James Chapman caught fire and the farm of William Moore was destroyed.
The fire was assumed to have been caused by an arsonist.
1881
Edmund Christmas, 49, innkeeper, b Cottenham
Hannah, 38, sister, b Cottenham
Emma Rogers, servant, 15, b Norfolk
1891
Norris William Vialls, head, 30, bricklayer and publican, b Cambridge
Bertha, 33, b Cottenham
Arthur, 5, b Cottenham
Percy, 4, b Cottenham
Albert 1, b Cottenham
Frederick John Vialls, lodger, 28, ag.lab., b Cambridge
Frederick Vialls owned an elegant carrier’s cart at the beginning of the 20th century. He could take people to Cambridge.
F J Vialls, Cottenham, and carrier’s cart c.1905
1901
Norris W Vialls, 40, bricklayer
Bertha
Arthur W
Percy
Albert
Aubrey, 9, b Cottenham
Walter Ely became licensee in 1901
1904
James Peck licensee
1910
Chequers, Cottenham, in 1910 (photo E Smith)
1912
Albert Furbank licensee
1926
Harry Morgan licensee
1921 War Memorial unveiled to commemorate 59 men killed in WWI. Fred Bacchus of Histon was the architect and contractor and charged £544 6s. Messrs John Hart and Son the village iron-founders were paid ten guineas for the ironwork.
War Memorial, Cottenham (MoC769/86)
1939
George H Morgan, b 1917, water company clerk (Cambs Water Co ARP)
WWII:
Phyllis Rosemary Dyer (b 19.7.1921) was evacuated here from London. The pub was then owned by a friend of her parents. In 1942 she married Kenneth Thomas Hostler, b 31.10.1914, a local man, described in the 1939 register as an Audit Clerk. By 1945 Phyllis was back in London living alone. Kenneth’s sister, Gwendoline Edith Hostler, is listed in 1939 as a nurse working at Littleton House in Girton.
1948
Donald Norman licensee
1949 a diary entry by Horace Gautrey from 1st March recorded a chimney stack blown down in the early hours of the morning. It fell onto a bed with such force that the legs were forced through the floorboards. (See Cottenham in Focus, 2002)
1953
Victor Carpenter licensee
1980
Peter Barnes licensee
1988
David Wallace licensee
Contribute
Do you have any information about the people or places in this article? If so, then please let us know using the Contact page or by emailing capturingcambridge@
License
This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
