Newmarket pub history index
A listing of historical public houses, Taverns, Inns, Beer Houses and Hotels in Newmarket - Suffolk. The Newmarket, Suffolk listing uses information from census, Trade Directories and History to add licensees, bar staff, Lodgers and Visitors.
Bull, Newmarket
[an error occurred while processing this directive]Residents at this address.
1791/Wakefield Chamber/../../../Directory
1811/Mr Granger/../../../Directory
1844/Thomas Smith/Black Bull/../../Directory
1869/Robert Moody jun/../../../Directory
1891/Robert Simpkin Jacob/../../../Directory
My great great grandfather is Charles Stephenson. In the 1891 census Charles
Stephenson is shown as a Publican and Baker at the
Carpenters Arms in Lower Station Road,
Newmarket. His wife Emily Stephenson (my great great grandmother) was the
daughter of James and Lucy Holcomb, who had been landlords of the
Jolly Brewer, Ferdinand Street, Camden Town; and Lucy Holcomb was, in
turn, the daughter of Ambrose Frost who was landlord of the
White Swan in Exning. *
In the 1901 Census Charles and Emily Stephenson are still on Lower Station
Road, Newmarket, and he is still a licensed victualler. I am assuming that
he was still at the Carpenters Arms, but this is not established. *
I also have a press report from the Cambridge Independent Press, Friday 4
January 1907, page 2 column 5, reporting the trial of Joseph Smith, a
stableman who was charged with stealing a turkey of the value of 18
shillings from a game dealer. The evidence of one of the witnesses is
reported as follows:
Charles Stephenson, landlord of the "Horse Shoe" Inn, Old Station-Road,
Newmarket, deposed that Smith came into his house on December 24th, a little
after 6, with a turkey which he offered for sale. Prisoner said three had
been sent him. He left one at his lodgings, and the other he had sold to Mr
Whitehurst. Witness did not purchase the turkey then, but about an hour
later he purchased it for 8s. Susequently he handed the turkey to the
police. He believed what prisoner said at the time, for he knew that
stablemen received presents of this description. *
So we can definitely say that Charles Stephenson was the landlord of the
Horse Shoe on Christmas Eve 1906. *
Charles and Emily went on to take over the licence at the Bull Hotel after
their son William (known to my mother as "uncle Wal"; but actually her great
uncle) went to France to do his bit in 1916 or 1917; and after Charles died
in 1919 Emily continued as landlady of the Bull until 1933 (she then retired
to Chieveley, where she died in 1936). I believe you already have these
details - but you may not have associated them with C Stephenson of the
Horse Shoe, nor made the inter-generational links with the Holcombs of the
Jolly Butcher and the Frosts of the White Swan. *
William Charles Stephenson, who was landlord of the Bull in 1916, had been born
in 1888; so he probably felt the need to go and "do his bit" in France. His
father Charles James Christopher Stephenson appears to have taken over as
landlord. *
1911/William Charles Stephenson/Hotel Proprietor/33/Newmarket,
Cambridgeshire/Census *
1911/Ethel Maud Stephenson/Wife/27/Mildenhall, Suffolk/Census
1911/Albert Edward Green/Servant/23/Newmarket, Cambridgeshire/Census
1911/Lilian Obee/Servant/23/Stratford/Census
1916/William Charles Stephenson/../../../Directory
Emily Cass Stephenson (my great great grandmother) was the grand daughter of
Ambrose Frost of the White Swan, Exning.
(Ambrose Frost had a daughter Lucy, who married James Holcomb, son of Anthony
Holcomb, the bailiff at Chippenham Hall, who lived to be 98 and was feted as
Chippenham's oldest resident when he died in 1890. James and Lucy Holcomb moved
to London where they had two daughters, and kept a beer house called the
Jolly Butcher. James
died young, and the family moved back to the Newmarket area, where Lucy went
into service and the two daughters lived with their grandparents. Emily Holcomb
went to live with Ambrose and Lucy Frost at the White Swan in Exning. She
subsequently married Charles James Stephenson, and they kept the Carpenter's
Arms in Station Road Wood Ditton / Newmarket. Charles James Stephenson died in
1919). William Charles Stephenson was my great great uncle; which makes him the
SON of Charles James Stephenson and Emily Cass Stephenson (nee Holcomb) ... so
what we actually see at the Bull in the early 1920s is a mother succeeding her
son!! *
Stephenson Charles James Christopher of the Bull Hotel Newmarket Cambridgeshire
died 20 November 1919 Probate London 12 March to Emily Cass Stephenson widow
Effects £1320 0s 4d *
Emily Stephenson then ran the hotel until 1933 (she died in 1936). *
1925/Mrs Emily Cass Stephenson/../../../Kellys Directory *
1933/Mrs Emily Cass Stephenson/../../../Kellys Directory *
1933/Edward Jas Andrews/proprietor/../../Directory
* provided by Jeremy Burrows
Some information provided by Suffolk Camra, and some by me