The Royal George

The site of Castle Gardens and Hall Close has probably seen as many comings and goings this century, as it did in all the years of its heyday as the site of the Royal Hunting Lodge. A row of three cottages was built in the 1920s by the Rural District Council and in the 40s there were two huts, housing shoe outworkers, the Home Guard and the British Legion. All were demolished in the 1960s, along with The Royal George, a public house that had a big impact on village life.

: Chalk drawing by Bill Sharp

: The thatched Royal George

: Circa 1947, The Royal George in Wood End (Street)

‘The first mention of this pub being a ‘retailer of beer’ dates back to 1862, when the property was owned by John Tebbutt of Newton, who converted one of his three cottages into a beer house. The 1830 Beer Act had set up these beer houses, which were humbler editions of pubs, often occupying just a room in a cottage and run by labourers and small tradesmen. In 1879 Tebbutt sold the premises, which consisted of the beerhouse and cottages each side, to Campbell Praed, Brewers of Northampton. John Kyle, described as “a dour old scot” became the licensee: he and his son James, whose nine children were all born there, kept the Royal George going until 1914, when Arthur Gray took over. The Kyles were granted a wine license in 1901, but a full publican’s licence was not forthcoming until 1949. It was the Kyles who were responsible for papering the walls with illustrations from Sporting Life and other magazines and newspapers, so that for a long time the premises were known as the Picture Gallery.

It was also during their time that it started being used as the base for both the Geddington Stars and the Geddington Montrose Football Clubs. They used to train in what was known as ‘the top room’, a large outhouse with a high roof in the yard. Tom Brookes, who was both deaf and dumb, being an admirable coach.’

: Geddington Stars FC 1892/3

: Geddington Stars FC 1894/5

: Geddington Stars FC 1895/6

: Geddington Montrose FC 1902/3

: Geddington Montrose FC 1906/07

In the image above, John Kyle can be seen in three of them, but it’s noticeable that in 1892 he had a full set of black hair, moustache and beard, but by 1906, it had all turned pure white. (Is this what running a football club does to people?)

‘The pub was taken over in 1914 by Arthur Gray, a keen cricketer, who continued the Royal George’s sporting associations. Match days were particularly busy as Hetty Gray, Arthur’s wife, always produced a sumptuous tea for the visiting teams, often with big rabbit pies, potatoes and vegetables. In addition a tin bath was carried into the smaller outhouse adjoining ‘the top room’, water, which had to be fetched by the bucketful from either of the two pumps in Wood End, was heated in the copper, so they could have a bath. Hetty also regularly washed all their kit.

During the First World War, the Royal George opened at 6.30am, so that farmers and their men could collect their beer to take up to the fields for their dinner break. If supplies of beer were short, as at that time they often were, Hetty would mix containers full of Oxo. Arthur is also remembered for his open-topped ‘charabanc’, used regularly by the cricket team to get to matches. At other times, it was regularly used for collecting coal from Geddington Station and delivering around the village (one of Arthur’s sidelines), the seats being hung in the pub yard, ready to be let down on pulleys when needed. Once it got stuck on Rockingham Hill and needed all hands to push it to the top! However, it also made several excursions to the seaside.

: Arthur Gray’s Charabanc

: The chimney breast with signatures

: Bill & his brother, Howard, behind the bar with customer, M Harker

: Howard & Bill Sharp with Jack Brampton

: Bill Sharp behind the bar with customer, Eddie Toseland

The Grays retired in 1939, moving to a new house in Newton Road. During WWII, all the pubs, but in particular the Star and The Royal George, were favourite haunts of the American airmen from the US base at Grafton Underwood, which boasted no pub of its own. There was a huge fireplace at The George which you could walk into and look up. The chimney had steps used by the young boys that in days past used to climb up and sweep it. It was this chimney that became plastered with signatures of American airmen, including, reputedly, Clark Gable’s. This was the pub’s heyday. When the airmen left, trade fell off and in 1954 Campbell Praed closed it. In 1956 it was sold by auction to a local builder for £250 and briefly the premises were used for residential accommodation. It was eventually demolished in 1965 to make way for Castle Gardens.

: Royal George during demolition

: ‘The Old Makes Way For The New’

: More sad news for old customers

: ‘Progress sinks Royal George’

Of all the pubs in the village, it was The Royal George that was most vividly remembered for its happy sing-songs, led by Arthur Gray, and its down-to-earth atmosphere.’

From its opening in 1879 to 1939, the pub had only the two landlords, although after Arthur Gray, Bill Sharp took it on until its closure in 1954.

Extracts from ‘Geddington As It Was’. We are extremely grateful to the Estate of its author, Monica Rayne, for permission to reproduce these extracts. The books are available from Geddington Post Office, proceeds from which go to the village’s Samuel Lee Charity.

Our thanks to the following for the loan of the photos, some of which appear in the autumn Newsletter of 2015: Dennis Toseland, Liz Towns and Alan Jones.

20 Comments

backwatersman

Sun 18th Oct 2015 at 8:24 pm

Fascinating reading. John Kyle was my great-grand-grandfather and was the head gamekeeper at Boughton House. I had no idea about his sideline (?) as a beerhouse proprietor!
Reply
backwatersman

Wed 21st Oct 2015 at 9:36 pm

(Great-great-grandfather, even.)
Reply
Claire Hardman

Sat 23rd Jan 2016 at 11:25 am

A really interesting read! Arthur and Hetty Gray were my great-grand parents.
Reply
- Pam
  
  Sat 23rd Jan 2016 at 6:25 pm
  
  Hell Claire
  Thank you for telling us about your connection to Arthur & Hetty Gray. If you have any photos, stories or any other sort of information about them, The Royal George or Arthur’s descendants (your ancestors), we’d love to hear them.
  Pam
  Reply
Julie Thomson

Sun 24th Jan 2016 at 11:25 pm

Arthur and Hetty Gray were parents to my Mother Stella Francis (Gray) Brown, one of their three daughters. I have never seen a picture of the Royal George before although mum told us all about it and my childhood was enhanced with stories of the girls (never allowed in the pub when it was open), coming in from school and being allowed to play in the bar with the skittles etc., and how Hetty put on sumptuous feasts for the footballers on Sundays.
Thank you.
Reply
Charlotte behan

Mon 24th Dec 2018 at 10:06 pm

Confused by this as my great grandad Howard sharp ran this during and after the 2nd world war
Reply
- Pam
  
  Wed 26th Dec 2018 at 11:07 am
  
  Hello Charlotte
  Thank you for this information about Howard Sharp, not a name that we had come across before. Do you have any more information about Howard and his time in the Royal George, that we can add to, and update, the history of the pub? Pam
  Reply
Melvyn Hopkins

Fri 28th Dec 2018 at 9:35 am

Howard Sharp was the son of William Joseph Sharp the licensee of the Royal George, who took over from Arthur Gray. The pub was sold to a local builder in 1956 and demolished in 1965 to make way for Castle Gardens.
Reply
- Pam
  
  Fri 28th Dec 2018 at 1:40 pm
  
  Always a reliable source of information, many thanks, Melvyn.
  Reply
Melvyn Hopkins

Sat 29th Dec 2018 at 9:45 am

Whoops! Sorry it was Edward Sharp who was the son of William (Bill). Howard was Bill’s brother. Edward teamed up with Eddie Toseland and started film shows in the village hall.
Reply
- Pam
  
  Sat 29th Dec 2018 at 12:15 pm
  
  And I called you ‘reliable’!
  Pam
  Reply
  - Melvyn Hopkins
    
    Sat 29th Dec 2018 at 3:53 pm
    
    I changed it from Howard being the son to Brother because of the above photograph stating Bill and his brother Howard behind the bar. But! an article in the Evening Telegraph dated 22 January 1965 states and I quote–“Mr. Howard Sharp, the son of the publican during the war years” describes what it was like.
    However another article on 19 November 1948 quotes Mr Edward Sharp son of the proprietor and Mr Toseland showing films in the village hall. I now think they got it wrong. It should have said Mr Sharp and Mr Edward Toseland. I hope that this clears it up.
    
    Happy New Year
    Reply
    - Pam
      
      Sun 30th Dec 2018 at 9:37 am
      
      Thank you,
      Pam
      Reply
Sandra

Mon 21st Jan 2019 at 10:09 pm

I don’t know if the dates underneath each photograph are taken from Monica’s book but it appears two of the Geddington Stars FC are a century out! A wonderful read anyway. I own the book but can’t put my hand on it at the moment to check.
Reply
- Pam
  
  Tue 22nd Jan 2019 at 9:27 am
  
  Ooops! Sorry about that, not Monica’s fault, but mine. Thanks for that and amazed that no-one else has spotted it. Now corrected to right century. Pam
  Reply
Melvyn Hopkins

Tue 22nd Jan 2019 at 3:53 pm

I mentioned to my uncle, Bernard Quincy, who is 94 if he remembered the old Royal George. My uncle Albert Quincy ran it for a while he said, taking over from Arthur Gray.
I checked the 1939 Register and yes he was there. But we do not know how long for.
Reply
Samantha Thomson

Mon 25th Mar 2019 at 6:19 pm

I am the granddaughter of Howard Sharp who, as Melvyn Hopkins says above, was the son of William Joseph Sharp who was the last landlord.of this pub. The photo above should say “Bill & his son, Howard”.
Reply
Antony Schmid (Crick - Bateman)

Thu 24th Sep 2020 at 2:38 pm

The signatures “Ray a – Joan” were my relatives
Reply
Nigel Clipstone

Tue 01st Feb 2022 at 8:14 pm

My name is Nigel Clipstone. Arthur and Hetty were my grandparents. They had three daughters Jean, Barbara and Stella . Barbara was my mum. I have a picture of the Charabang parked down by the cross as a taxi. Grandad had a house built up Newton Road and planted three pine trees and named the house The Three Pines.
Reply
- Pam
  
  Wed 02nd Feb 2022 at 7:02 pm
  
  Hello Nigel,
  Many thanks for sharing your family history with us. I think we have the picture that you mention in our Archive pages. I seem to remember a story that the charabanc was used to take the football club to away games. So many village families, so much history, so very interesting.
  Reply