The Ship, West Street Marlow Landlords and historic timeline

 

Updated by Charlotte Jan 2024.

 We mainly focus on pre 1920 listings but sometimes list later landlords if we come across them during research. 

1792 - Thomas Hussey/ Hussrey 2.Thomas Humphrey

1823 - William Clark

1824 - William Clark

1831 -  George Dorell

1832 - George Dorell

1836 - "The Old Ship"  Mrs Dorrell qv. 

1839 - As The Old Ship - William Sawyer. For him see also The Coach and Horses. He was he son of bakers James and Charlotte Sawyer of West Street see here for more on them and his brother.

1841 - William Sawyer

1842- George Stevens

1843 - George Stevens. Fined £2 for allowing cards to be played on his premises. This was a high amount and considered unfair by many. 

1844 - George Stevens 2. John Clark(e)

1846- as The Old Ship Inn. John Clark transfers to Richard Green who is also a blacksmith.

1847 - As The Old Ship - Richard Green.

1851 - Richard Reeves. Richard and his wife Jane were previously managers of the Workhouse. See this post for a biography of them.

1853 - Richard Reeves

1854 - Richard Reeves.

1859 - Jane Reeves. Widow of Richard.

1863 -  Mrs Jane Reeves

1864  - Mrs Jane Reeves

1870 "the Ship Tavern" 

1871 -  Sarah Reeves. She came from the Prince Albert, Spittal Street and was the widow of William Reeves. Jane had just died.

1872 - John Cuthbert

1873 - John Cuthbert. 2. Henry Poole

1876 - Henry Poole transfers to Miss Jessie Macintosh. 

1878 -  Miss Jessie Macintosh died there age 28. 

1878 - Henry Poole again. A business partnership with John Tildesley relating to the manufacture of soda water at the Ship, came to tears. The two fell out and came quite literally to blows when Charles and several others tried to remove the equipment. They took out summons accusing each other of assault - in the case of John the attack was upon Felix Tildesley who had accompanied his father to the Ship. The case against Poole was dismissed. Charles was fined 13s including costs. Then Joshua Benjamin Gladding takes over. 

1881  - Joshua Gladding dies, James Rim(m)ell takes over. 

1883 -  James Rimmel(l)

1884 -  James Rimmell.

Thomas Barnes (temporary after James Rimmell's death) then "Mrs Rymmell" qv widow. 

1885 - Hannah Rimmell (Wife of James) 

1886 -  Hannah Rimmell. (Wife of James Rimmell) Lost her licence for harbouring prostitutes -  see Here   Thomas Barnes takes over again 1887. 

1888 - Thomas Barnes. 2 Joseph Warden

1889  - 1. Joseph Warder/Warden, 2. Thomas George Austin

1890 - Thomas John Richards (born Kent)

1891 -  Thomas Richards

1892  - Transfer from Thomas Richards to William Saunders, and then from Saunders to W Dominick Westcott. Thomas Richards left after marrying a woman of  private means living in Little Marlow. But this marriage of Thomas and Agnes was not happy and within 2 months of their wedding day they had separated, both accusing the other of drunkenness and violence. The case went to court, and Agnes was convicted of assaulting Thomas by whipping his face. (Agnes admitted to using the whip but said Thomas had started the trouble by swearing at her.) A counter charge against Thomas was made, but he was found not guilty as it was considered he was acting in self defence.  The costs of both cases were to be paid by Agnes. She claimed Thomas had married her for her money, and had became a beast when he could not get his hands on it. Thomas said Agnes had taken against the daughters from his first marriage (especially Ada) and had acted out of jealousy. He claimed she had developed a habit of drinking when acting as the former land lady of the Windsor Castle Inn at High Wycombe. Both were bound over to keep the peace. 

1893 - 1. William D Westcott 2. Charles Lisson Mathews

1895 - Charles L Mathews 2. Thomas Walter (or Walker) Lowe

1896 - Mr Lowe 2. ? Gunn. Suffers a chimney fire this year due to beam running through chimney beginning to smoulder. Marlow Fire Brigade had dealt with this kind of fire before and said it is not uncommon to find such badly placed wooden beams in old buildings. Damage limited. 

1897 -   1 G A Gunn 2. James Swain.  (Joseph Warder, Thomas George Austin two names possibly proposed and refused instead of Swain)

1898 - James Swain transferred licence to Thomas Watson. He had no choice after police complaints of months of disgraceful behaviour at the pub, including him being found flat- out drunk on the premises and drunkenly attacking his wife Sarah so blood was running down her face when a police constable found her. The local magistrates said that unless Swain left immediately the brewery would lose their licence for the pub. They swiftly dumped Swain.

1899 - Thomas Watson (Alt. William Watson).

1901 - Mr Watson transfers premises to Arthur Osborn. 

1902 - Survives attempt by authorities to close it down as excess to West Streets licensed premises requirements. The high turnover of landlords in recent years counts against it but the fact the licence is "very clean" and the premises in very good condition keep it open. Arthur Osborne 2. W A Bennett (previously proprietor of Royal Oak, Huntingdon)

1903 - Albert E Bull

1904 - A E Bull 2. Arthur Barlow

1906 - Arthur Barlow 2. Thomas Flaxman/ Flexman

1907 - Thomas Barnes (hold-over) 2. Joseph Warden ditto. 3. Edward Tygat (e) 4. Alfred Schreen. 

1908 - Alfred Screen / Schreen. Spelling varies. Pub has bowling alley and a stable but the latter is not used. Headquarters of the 200 strong Ivy Ramblers Club of London.

1909 - Alfred Screen. In this year the pub is described as having 5 bedrooms which were constantly accommodating visitors during the "river season." In 1908 only three bedrooms mentioned as available to visitors.  In addition the skittle alley was sometimes pulled into use as a little extra space when hosting summer teas. The pub sells twice as many barrels of beer as they did a couple of years ago when they catered for fewer parties. That's two barrels worth of beer a week being sold plus 18 bottles of beer on average and 6 gallons of draught spirits. And yes they sold non alcoholic cordials and mineral water too. The pub is "clean and well conducted" but needs some repairs to the actual premises according to a report submitted to the licencing committee. 

1910 - Alfred Screen leaves Marlow. Next landlord - Charles Percy Joy

1911 - Charles Joy

1920 - Charles Percy Joy. Fined 20s for profiteering in this year for selling gin at higher than the fixed maximum price. Charles pleads guilty but says he doesn't sell many spirit drinks and so can't buy it at a favourable price. If he sells it at the maximum fixed price he says he'd be making a loss. And his total profit per bottle were only 1s which he did not think could be fairly called profiteering. A charge against Mrs Joy for actually serving the drinks is dropped. 

1924 - James G Palmer

1939 - Charles Thornton Arnold. 

1962 - Mrs Doris Mary West is leaving for the Canary Islands. Licence transfers to Mr John Somerville Blundell 

* For more on the Rimmell family see separate post here*

Look on the menu here for more landlord listings for Marlow, Little Marlow, Medmenham and Lane End as well as biographies of some pub keeping individuals or families, a listing of the 100+ pubs Marlow has had, and pub histories.

See under "Specific Shops, Streets Etc" on the menu for links to posts about other historic West Street businesses and residents.

©Marlow Ancestors. 

SOURCES

1853 Musson & Cravens Commercial directory (Compiled 1852), published by Musson & Craven. 

1859,1864,1877,1883, 1899,1903,1907,1911 & 1915 -Kelly's Post Office Directory. 

1839 Robson's Directory

Pigots Directory 1823,1831,1844

Contemporary press coverage of licencing hearings, court cases, and other news accessed via the BNA including: South Bucks Standard, 12 August 1892, 16 July 1901, 22 May 1902, June 21 1907, March 5th 1909 & 28th Oct 1910.

Reading Mercury May 8 1879. As above. 

Various property deeds, wills transcribed by Charlotte and legal proceedings. 

Census 1841,1851,1861,1871,1881, 1891

The Carrier's Arms and Star Of The Town, Wycombe Road, Great Marlow *updated June 2025*

Updated by Kathryn June 2025.

Historic landlord listing and history timeline: 

Licensed from 1848 with unknown name then. Was known as the Star Of The Town in the 1860s, a name which *may* have been inspired by the launch of Marlow's Star of The Thames boat in 1864 - see here

1861 - ? Possibly Charles Belcher, carrier. Nephew of the Johnsons of the nearby Plough. Or is it one of the Judge family? 

[1865 - Star Of The Town - Mrs Judge]

[1867 - Star Of The Town - Henry Judge, who is fined for opening his beerhouse on a Sunday despite Mrs Judge's efforts to throw the incriminating pints down into the cellar and out of sight. ]

As the Carriers Arms: 

1870 - John & Mary Ann Palmer.  John's parents also called John & Mary Palmer lived with them. John the son had previously been coachman to Major Henry Court at Wargrave. John junior was described as a carrier to Wycombe in 1873. In 1870 a poor "tramp" Ann Russell stole a pair of scissors belonging to Mary Ann from the premises and was sent to prison for six weeks as a result. Ann Russell had used the scissors to pay for lodgings at the Bear in Chapel Street. In 1872 a travelling man was charged with obtaining food and beer from Mary Ann under false pretences. The same occured in 1873 when a supper of bacon, potatoes and bread cost 6d plus 2d for a pint of beer at the Carriers.

1881 - John Palme

1883 - John Palmer 

1887 - John Palmer's chickens stolen from the premises.

1888 - John Palmer, also a carrier assisted by his wife Mary Ann. This year Mary Ann refused to buy a box of cigars offered to her by a customer, rightly suspecting them to be stolen.

1889 -  H Palmer then Benjamin Hughes

1891 - George B Hughes.

1892 - GB Hughes transferred premises to Thomas Munday. G B Hughes heads to The Plough. See here. He is later at the Black Lion,Well End, Little Marlow See here. 

1893/4 - Thomas J Mundy

1895 - Alfred Sarney (see also the Black Horse)

1896 - Alfred Sarney to Mr Sawyer, then to W A Shepherd then to Thomas Richards and finally Edward John Briggs. Difficulties arose from finding proprietor that was acceptable long term licensee to authorities. Such a parade of temporary landlords is quite frequent in Marlow! 

1898 - Samuel Ware 2. John Foster

1899 -  Mr Foster transferred to John Debenham

1907 -  John Debenham *Read about John's thwarted plans for his pub's closure and for a replacement in a new location in this post here

1911 -Mrs Lily Debenham, then holdover to Richard George Brant (who is used by brewery often to take over premises for a short time), followed by  James Belcher, who had moved from Chairmaker's Arms Dean Street. See here

1912  - Firstly Richard George Brant then later that year Walter Goddard.

1912-21 Walter Goddard.

1915 Sgt Smith of the Carrier's Arms is serving in the Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry in Flanders. 

1928- ex farmer James Holmes originally from Pewsey, Wiltshire  took over. 

1932 -James Holmes died of pneumonia following an operation. His widow Ann(e) Holmes takes over. 

1934 - Ann Holmes to Alfred Ball

1935 - Alfred George Ball to Phillip Henry Hanks. 

1937 - Sidney Juggins 

1939 - April of that year. Margaret Juggins. Her husband was serving in the RAF at the time. As he was the one compensated for the forced closure of the pub later that year she looks to have been minding the pub for him while he was thus occupied. *Update - we have confirmed that the landlord from 1937 was Sidney Juggins*

Closed - 1939 / 1940 by authorities to reduce the number of drinking establishments in town. Last landlord Sidney Charles Juggins husband of the above Margaret. The Wethered's brewery did not oppose the forced closure as they said they had enough other premises near by. The old pub was leased for emergency housing in the 40s-50s by the Minister of Housing and Marlow Urban District Council. This ceased c1957 and the owner put it up for sale as a "lucrative" development opportunity. It was demolished late 1961 and Maple Court flats were erected on the site in 1962. 

Researched by Kathryn Day and Charlotte Day.

NOTES - Many Marlow landlords switched premises over time and their family members can often be found running other pubs locally too.  

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. Thousands are listed. 

Posts about life in the neighbouring streets here

More beer sellers than bakers -Temperance in Marlow here

Lists of posts about everyday life in old Great Marlow here

SOURCES Include:

South Bucks Standard, 6 January 1893, 8 November 1895, 3  1896, Bucks Herald November 3rd 1888, each copy held at British Library archives, accessed via the BNA

1872 list of Beer Sellers, Old Bucks County Archives

Kelly's Post Office Directory 1883, 1907, 1911

Census 1881, transcription from microfilm by Charlotte Day. 

©MarlowAncestors