East Arms Inn, Hurley

Near the toll house. Often used by anglers to stay in and to house coroner's inquests. Also used for auctions.

History timeline and historic landlord listing.

1851-67 James Cowley. Wife Lucy. They came from the Marlborough Arms in Hurley some time between 1847-51. In 1864 James so badly injured his hand when a gun he was cleaning in the bar of the East Arms discharged that he had to have it amputated [Reading Mercury 13th August 1864, British Library Archives, via the BNA]. During his time as landlord the premises were, sadly,  often used for celebratory dinners after hare coursing meets.

1876-77 Lucy Cowley widow of James. She gave up that year. Lucy retired to Shinfield where she died in 1882.

1877-78 Thomas Clout. He died in 1878. Widow Caroline took over. Thomas and Caroline look to have come from running a pub in Iver. In 1877 their 14 year old employee Alfred drowned while fishing in the river at Hurley.

1878-79 Caroline Clout as above.

1879-81 William Claydon.

1883 - Francis Davis

1884= recommended as a place to stay by readers of the magazine Illustrated Sports.

1891-94= William Deacon and wife Elizabeth. William seems to have been a rare thing - a Hurley born Hurley landlord. He was only  59 when he died September 10th 1894 after a short illness. The Deacons changed the name to the East Arms Hotel. William and Elizabeth were previously at the Ray Mead Hotel in Maidenhead for 25 years. At his death William was described as a "amiable and generous man". He also served as president of the local Licensed Victuallers Protection Association. 

Above, 1891 advert. "Every accomodation for the fishing, picnics and excursion parties " . You will note William offers stabling for 40 horses, a high and dry camping ground and boat sale, hire and repair from his "works at Bourne End Station" including a boat yard there. Spot the printing error. 

1894-1907 Elizabeth Deacon, widow of William above. Suffered the theft of its Slate Club funds in 1905, by club secretary Thomas Reed of Bisham. He served 2 months in Reading gaol with hard labour. See more here. In 1904 the Arms saw the inquest of Hurley's 7 year old resident, Thomas Edwin Overall, who had been killed in a hit and run while on a path. The inquest ruled the boy had been killed by dangerous driving and therefore the driver of the car was arrested for manslaughter. Mrs Deacon says her telephone never stopped ringing with offers of help to the bereaved family. Young Thomas was the son of Charles Edwin who had already lost his wife and who had 6 other children.  (Stanley Monroe Noble, coming from London, was the driver. He was controversially acquitted.)

Post by Charlotte Day. Gaps in dates are gaps in my research or relate to information yet to be uploaded. 

Compiled from censuses, licensing information, court cases, adverts, directories newspapers as quoted above, etc. Kelly's Post Office Directory by Kellys Directories Limited 1854 and 1863. Edward Cassey and Co's Directory 1865, Dutton, Allen and Co Directory 1867. Royal County Directory 1876 by J.G Harrod and co. London Metropolitan Archives.

More Hurley pub history and landlord listings in the future. We have a large number of similar posts for pubs in Marlow, Little Marlow, Medmenham and Lane End (all Buckinghamshire) plus a few for the Hurley pubs we have already featured. These are all listed here.

Our main focus is Marlow on this blog but we do cover places like Hurley because of frequent connection between them and Marlow. For a list of Hurley, Harleyford and Temple related posts see here

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