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Examples of Yateley inventories
17th century Yateley inventories showing households of differing sizes which clearly brewed regularly.
It appears from the size of Robert Hunt's house, and the fact that he is stated to be of Minley, that he owned or leased Minley Manor. This was not the building now occupied by the Royal Engineers, but an earlier building on the site of the house now known as Minley Warren. This is somewhat confusing this the Warren at Minley was to the south of the old manor house. Robert Hunt's inventory therefore demonstrates a largish house, being run as a stand-alone estate which brewed its own beer.
John Bedel's inventory specifically mentions hops. The 'great window in the parlour' is also intriguing since it seems to be excluded from the value of his inventory, implying it was owned by someone else. There is no mention of his occupation.
Another Blackwater innholder. His inventory is particularly interesting since it lists the sign in front of his house. If only we knew the name written on it - was it the Red Lion, the Swan, or the White Hart -- or perhaps some other now forgotten name.
Thomas Elmes represents a person living in a reasonably sized house -- now known as The Old Vicarage on Church End Green. We discuss later the possibility that this house was a former inn then known as The Horns.
Francis Belsher was apparently a brewer in Blackwater, so probably an Innholder as well. It is interesting to note that many of the inns we know today, including the Duke of York in Camberley now (2008) being demolished, were built by William Belsher Parfett, probably a direct descendent of Francis Belsher. William Belsher Parfett operated a brewery in Eversley.
Daniel Heyman is described as a yeoman, but he had a brewhouse containing a furnace and brewing vessels. He also had a cellar - something I expect was rare in Yateley with its high watertable.
Although Giles Hatt is called a Blacksmith in his inventory, he has a brewhouse with two furnaces. The quantities of oats, hops, and malt, plus the six hogsheads, two barrels and three kilderkins full of ale, plus the two empty hogsheads and one empty kilderkin, suggest that he also kept, or supplied, one of the Blackwater inns in the very early days of travel by stage coach.
Several of these inventories quite probably represent commercial establishments. However ordinary households brewed beer for themselves until the late 1780s. Evidence of brewing occurs in quite modest households.
Back to 1997 Exhibition: Inns, Alehouses & Maltsters of Yateley
NEXT page in 1997 Exhibition - please note the above Inventories do not form part of the sequence]
Original page written by Peter Tipton for the Yateley Society's 1997 Exhibition: Inns, Alehouses & Maltsters
Additional research by Norma Dowling, Richard Johnston, & Elizabeth Tipton
Original page has been revised to include the Society's latest Research
(c) The Yateley Society, 1997 & 2008
Page Exhib.1997.33
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