YATELEY'S BEERHOUSES
Ante 1869 Beerhouses
In 1830 there were about 50,000 licensed Alehouses in England and Wales. These establishments were licensed annually by the Licensing Justices to sell wines and spirits, as well as beer. The Duke of Wellington's government wanted to reduce gin drinking by creating a free trade in beer. They also wanted to encourage the growth of hops and barley, after a series of bad harvests causing agricultural unrest. The First Beerhouse Act of 1830 was introduced to enable any householder paying the Poor Rate to sell beer from home simply by paying annually two guineas to the Excise. The householder did not need to apply to the Licensing Justices, who continued to issue alehouse licences.
The effect of the 1830 Act was dramatic. In less than six months 24,342 new beersellers had paid the excise fee. By 1838 the number of new beerhouses had risen to 48,717, a 100% increase in licensed premises.
In Yateley village in 1830 there was only one alehouse licence granted by the magistrates, to the Dog and Partridge. John Sandford and John Bedford were two of those quick off the mark to establish new beerhouses: the Royal Oak and the Cricketers. The Plough (before 1864), the Bell (ca 1862), the Ely (before 1869), the Wheatsheaf (ca 1858), were among those beerhouses which followed before 1869.
A new Act in 1869 brought back control of all new licences to the Licensing Justices. However subsequent legislation allowed beersellers who had become established under the 1830 Act to continue to pay their annual fee without the need to come before the licensing sessions. This special category of premises, licensed under the 1830 Act to sell beer only, became known as ante 1869 beerhouses.
Back to 1997 Exhibition: Inns, Alehouses & Maltsters of Yateley
Original page written by P J Tipton for the Yateley Society's 1997 Exhibition: Inns, Alehouses & Maltsters
Additional research by Richard Johnston & Elizabeth Tipton
Original page may now have been revised to include the Society's latest Research
(c) The Yateley Society, 1997 & 2008
Page Exhib.1997.13
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