Updated by Charlotte Feb 2026.
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Well End was one of the original names of Dean Street. It was used mainly pre 1850's, although some trade directories still utilised it in the 1860's. It is not to be confused with Well End near Little Marlow.
THE FOX AND PHEASANT
Note there was also an early The Fox in West Street.
1851 - William Perry, age 52
1859 - William Perry fined £1 for having his beer house open during illegal hours on a Sunday.
1860 - William and Avis Perry. Lots more on these in our Poaching Perrys post. His brother Samuel was landlord of the dean Street pub the Rose and Crown. More on him in the Poaching Perrys post here . William was fined this year for using short measures, one of 4 establishment so caught.
1864 - William and Avis Perry. William was fined £2 and 10 shillings plus costs for opening the premises on a Sunday morning (and thus was attracting people away from attending divine service instead). Avis is the one in court on William's behalf.
1868 - William Perry fined £5 for opening up his beer house for sale of beer on a Sunday
1871- William Perry transferred to John Larkin who came to this pub from the Carpenters Arms (see this post) Also a carpenter. Wife of Larkin was Eliza.
1872 - John Larkin.
1881 - John Larkin?
THE ROSE AND CROWN
Beer house with yard
1833 Richard Clarke. Came from The Jolly Malsters Dean Street. Died 1836. More about him on that post.
1840 - described by the Bucks Gazette as an "obscure beer shop in Dean Street" when a drinker who fell asleep in the tap room was relieved of more than £6 by a pick pocket.
1842 - Samuel Perry. Brother of William Perry above. See the Poaching Perrys post for more on him and his family. Dead by 1851.
1844 - J Carr. Almost certainly Josiah Carr who this year was involved in a very long (over two days) fight with another man that started in the Rose and Crown, carried on in the street outside then moved to "Crown Close" (near the back of Boots today). All over a game of cards being played for money. Josiah was a serial poacher convicted of offences at Fawley and Marlow. See also The Anchor below for more Carrs.
Gone by 1872.
THE ALMA presumably named for the 1854 battle, however records suggest the premises first received a licence in 1830. This would indicate that this was one of the many pubs that changed name over time. On Queens Road / Gas Works side of the road.
1860 - James Patterson (fined for having defective measures, and unusually one was an "over measure" rather than a short measure!) Having a defective measure was a very common offence and seems often to stem from manufacturing defects in the measure rather than dishonesty on the publican's part. In 1861, he was living elsewhere in Dean Street and working as a cordwainer with wife Ann. By 1871 he and Ann have taken on The Nags Head, also in Dean Street. Possibly the James "Pattison" at the "Blue Bonnets" [Bonnet O' Blue] West Street 1855.
1861 - James East, also market gardener. Wife Charlotte. A James East was listed as a Well End / Dean Street beer retailer in 1849 at uncertain premises. This was not necessarily the same James as later at the Alma however. The James that was at the Alma looks to have been the cousin of Mrs Diana Smith landlady of the Bricklayers Arms in Chapel Street. More on that pub here.
1869 -William East of The Fighting Cocks applied for the licence as he said that he only put his name down for the Cocks to save it from closure but he had no intention of staying there. William was unsuccessful though, as he'd faced trial at a Quarter Sessions. He wasn't found guilty but this was regarded as a "moral stain" and only those of good character were allowed a licence - in theory at least! John Finch took on the Alma instead temporarily.
1870 - James Meakes had it briefly (he was a brewer and he may have been running his own pub until he could find a live in landlord) then Henry Harding (hold over). William Brown applies for the licence but the magistrates feel the local character references he supplies are not sufficient as he's only been in town for 3 months. Therefore they don't represent a satisfactory insight into his character they feel. NB this is not the same William Brown who was a landlord at The Mint or Jolly Maltsters.
1872 - Mr Finch. William Thatcher was spotted going intothe premises during prohibited hours and was fined 1s, a nominal sum for his first offence. His defence? He just wanted to borrow some salt for his vegetables from Mrs Finch.
1873 - John Finch to George Allen. John appears to have moved to The Bank of England, where the brewers were required to find a new tenant after the previous one was accused of harbouring criminals.
1877 - John Finch qv (lodging house also)
1878 - William West (hold-over)
1879 -Henry Hester with wife Charlotte. Licencing authorities are assured Henry has a character of excellent "sobriety, industry, and honesty". An attempt to transfer the licence little later that year to Daniel Price is refused due to lack of sufficient character references for Daniel. He did succeed taking it on briefly the next year it seems.
1880 - 1. Henry Hester transferred licence to Thomas Price or Daniel Price.
1881 - Daniel Price transferred licence to George Allen.
1882 - Licence renewal for George Allen refused. The premises had been closed several months at time of the licencing sessions. In April two homeless women, Sarah Brewer junior and senior were arrested for sleeping in the empty building. Sarah senior spent 7 days in prison for this, the younger was released without charge. By September the owner of the premises, James Meakes (Meekes) was extremely frustrated that he had been unable to find a suitable tenant (or rather one the licencing magistrates will accept as suitable) So he decided to apply to take over the licence himself. If they did not grant this, James said that the property would become valueless as it will have to stay closed. His pleas were unsuccessful. Probably because they suspected that the other business interests of James would not in reality allow him to personally manage things with the close attention they felt the Alma needed. In October the licence was refused again to George Allen. This refusal came after the magistrates went to view the property - for reasons we cannot yet discover but the most common reasons for refusal on grounds of the property itself rather than the behaviour of the landlord were too low a rateable value to qualify for a licence, the perceived condition of the building or a physical feature that was considered likely to make the premises hard to police - eg entrance on to a back alley.
1884 - "The Alma Inn". We are uncertain if the premises were still actually open for business but the name still seems to have been up.
THE FIGHTING COCKS
Was immediately next to the Nag's Head
1840 - Samuel Beckett. John Perry was convicted of shooting at and damaging the sign of the Fighting Cocks.
1844 - S. Beckett. Also a carpenter.
1851 - Samuel Beckett
1853 - Samuel Beckett
1861 - Samuel Beckett (also a carpenter). Wife Emma nee James. Samuel was born circa 1812, the son of James (a carpenter) and Ann Beckett who lived Quoiting Square Marlow. Samuel was dead by 1882. Emma died in 1883.
1868- William East. Probably had come from The Nags Head.
1869 -William East transferred to Joseph Perry. William applied to take on The Alma as he said he'd just stepped in when the Cocks was at risk of closure and so put his name on the licence with no intention of staying long term. He was not successful in his application for The Alma. See below. One local report states the licence transfer was to a James Perry, not Joseph but the majority of evidence suggests that Joseph is correct. The new Perry in charge said on his application for the licence that he was already resident at the Cocks. He said he currently worked seasonally on threshing machines and at hawking fruit. He however did have experience of running an unnamed beer-house in Canterbury about 12 years previously. He did so for a year after which time he "could not make it pay".
1871- Joseph Perry born 1834 (also an agricultural labourer, former skewer maker -more on his family's involvement in this trade here). Wife Ann.
1873- a lodger had coins and buttons stolen from the premises.
1878 - Joseph Perry (also labourer)
1881 - Joseph Perry (also agricultural labourer)
1883 - Joseph Perry to his widow Ann.
1884 - James Perry 2. John Bryant
1884 - John Briant /Bryant (later a greengrocer/ shopkeeper/ market gardener in Queens Road. John was a retired soldier) 2.) Mrs Perry (unknown first name). She was given notice to quit by Wethered's Brewery as she was caught selling beer outside of legal hours. At court she received a 15s fine for this.
1885 - proposal to close The Fighting Cocks if the immediately adjacent Nag's Head was awarded a spirit licence. An identical proposal had been accepted the previous year but paperwork wasn't filed in time so the Nag's Head spirit licence had to be applied for again this year. Proposal accepted in principle but Fighting Cocks did not close. See below.
1889 - Proposal again made by owners to close this down in exchange for being granted full licence for Nags Head. It doesn't seem to have happened as in 1892 a second proposal is made to close it in exchange for the Wethered Brewery getting an off licence that would allow it to sell smaller quantities of bottled beer off the premises to trade customers who came from small beer houses. Their existing licence only allowed them to sell beer by the large cask or in a minimum of 24 bottles at once, which they said was too much for some of the smaller concerns who would happily come and collect their own bottled supplies direct from the brewery if permitted. Seems The Fighting Cocks was still open however until 1897. When the off licence was considered, Wethered's had suggested they would close the Cocks to encourage the magistrates to find in their favour, and the magistrates intimated they would like to see this happen. However it doesn't seem they made it an actual condition of granting the licence, so perhaps that gave the brewery no sense of hurry in the matter.
THE ROYAL EXCHANGE
1860 - John Langley. Fined for using short measures this year. Wife Ann.
1861 - John Langley (John aka John Langley Senior was at the Verney Arms by 1871, see also The Crown).
1863 John Langley tried to get a spirit license for the premises but it was refused.
1869- John Langley tried again to upgrade premises to an alehouse in September. Not successful. His existing premises were large enough to host a club dinner for 150 persons in May. He opened the Verney Arms in October with an official grand opening in December. It was described as newly built premises.
Not listed in an 1872 list of beer houses.
THE ANCHOR, on the Queen's Road side of the street.
Primarily a lodging house, albeit one with beer selling licence. Not the same as The Crown and Anchor.
1840 Joseph Carr?
1841 - George Carr (beer seller and lodging house keeper, premises not named, but right street). Carr's Beer house "Near Marefields." . Wife was Ann.
1844 - George Carr
1853 - George Carr
1854 - premises for sale, "that well accustomed Beerhouse" the Anchor, Dean Street. Includes tenement adjoining and large yard.
1857- George Carr fined 50s for having his beerhouse open for longer than the legal hours. This was a large fine for that offence. Mrs Carr represented him in court and said she had kept a beerhouse for 20 years without being summoned so we know Mrs Carr was equally involved in the business. It also suggests the possibility of the Anchor existing as far back as 1837, or of the Carrs having previously been at another house.
1860 - George Carr. Fined 2s 6d for giving short measures, one of several beer sellers caught doing the same in Marlow that year.
1861 - George Carr 2. Ann Carr widow of George. She was a lodging house keeper and marine store dealer on the same premises as well as being a beer seller.
1862 - Ann Carr "Anchor Beer House". Fined for having 5 people drinking in her bar after hours. She said she had lost track of time. Ann was said in the South Bucks Free Press (Nov 1st 1862) to be a good looking, blonde woman (or as it was said precisely "fat, fair and forty") who did a good trade as lodgings provider for itinerant people on the fringes of society. This made her a desirable match. A widowed man called Richardson had been playing court to her seemingly with success even though they sometimes physically fought but eventually they fell out for good. Ann told him to leave. In revenge for one night he let anyone who wanted to put their horses in her meadow and eat the grass for the sum of 6 shillings. He broke the lock in order to do this. Presumably she was keeping the grass for hay or it was thought the animals might damage the hedges or just startle Ann by their unexpected presence. An odd sort of revenge anyway. She had him arrested but chose not to appear in court to press the case and the charges were dismissed. Ann by the way was nearly 50, not 40.
1863 - Ann Carr, still also lodging house keeper and marine store dealer.
1867 - Charles Price. Fined 21s for keeping the premises open after hours on one occasion and 10 shillings on another. Went by 1871 to Crown and Cushion Dean Street, first to live with his sister in law the landlady then to run the place himself.
1876 - George Carr, now a lodging house only. Believed to be no longer licensed at this point. Perhaps son of George and Ann above though we couldn't see such a baptism.
1897 - is still in existence and apparently licensed again as there was reference at a local coroner's inquest to a man who lived elsewhere in the town going for a drink in the Anchor, Dean Street Marlow. A resident of the premises then was an Alice Hurst.
Related Posts:
There are posts on this blog about individual families associated with certain pubs, as well as on individual pubs themselves so have a look at the Pub Related index here & don't forget the Person Index for all mentions of someone on this blog. Find it on the top drop down menu.
Posts about life in Dean Street and neighbouring streets here
More beer sellers than bakers -Temperance in Marlow here
Lists of posts about everyday life in old Great Marlow here
* For more on the dramatic life of William and his wife Avis see our post here.
SOURCES
Licence hearing reports, property transactions, court cases, advertising, wills etc and...
1853, 1863 Mussons and Cravens Commercial Directory from University of Leicester Archives.
Kelly's Post Office Directory - 1859, 1864, 1869, 1877. By Kelly's Directories Limited.
1833 Parish Assessment. Original record held by my family and transcribed by Charlotte Day.
1872 Beer House Listings, Old Bucks County Council Archives
Pigots Directory 1844
Census 1841,1861,1871,1881,1891 transcribed from microfilm.
Bucks Herald 3 October 1840, 17 July 1841, 9th August 1873, 22 May 1902 - held at British Library and accessed via the BNA March 2021.
Bucks Advertiser and Aylesbury News 14 July 1860, as above
Reading Mercury -10 November 1855, 25 September 1875, 29 November 1890, as above
South Bucks Standard July 14 1876, 20 September 1899, June 10 1904, December 25 1908, March 25th 1909 as above.
Windsor & Eton Express January 25 1868, January 9th 1909 as above
South Bucks Free Press July 14 1860, as above and August 8th 1884 via the Bucks Free Press archives.
Maidenhead Advertiser September 4 1889, as above
Slough Eton and Windsor Observer Aug 29 1885 - Slough Library.
Post researched and written by Kathryn Day
©Marlow Ancestors.
