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The Warwick Arms Public House in Maldon
The Early Years
by Stephen P. Nunn
Standing on the corner of Victoria Road and the lower part of High Street, Maldon, Essex, is the Warwick Arms Public House.
This unassuming building of red brick, tiled roofs and functional architecture, has served the local community as a popular ale house for over one and a half centuries. Like most public houses, it has had a mixed past, a large number of landlords, at least four name changes, and various structural alterations, but its primary and original purpose continues in a timeless sense to this day.
If one looks carefully at the building, you will also spot some surviving clues to its early history. To understand how the place started we must turn the clock back to the year 1839. Victoria had only been Queen for two years, she had not yet married her beloved Prince Albert and the talk of the moment was about national political reform. In Maldon, John Wilmshurst had been elected Mayor of a popular riverside town, with an active port, prosperous commercial centre and a new “Eastern Counties” main line railway not far away in Brentwood - but slowly creeping towards Colchester, Witham and (in 8 years time) Maldon. There were various shops and commercial hotels and a great many public houses – not least in the vicinity of the streets leading to the Hythe Quay.
An individual named William Newman decided that there was scope to add to the number of beer outlets in Maldon and on the 30th May 1839 he put his proposal to the wealthy Colchester Brewer, John Posford Osborne. Osborne was a shrewd businessman who had a controlling interest in the brewery and malting business of Barnes and Hunt at Abbey Gate Street, Colchester. He obviously thought that Newman’s idea was a good one as he loaned him £400 to get the place started. Thus began the Warwick Arms – except it did not carry that name from the beginning.
Newman’s new public house was rather unusually called the Queen Adelaide. This name was taken from Adelaide Louisa Theresa Caroline Amelia, wife of William IV. She was born in Germany in 1792, married William in 1818 and was crowned Queen Consort in 1831. William had died in 1837 but the popular Queen Adelaide survived him for a further 12 years, eventually dying on the 2nd December 1849. A number of pubs were named after the widowed Queen, and a survey of English Inn and Tavern names indicates that the Victorians had a strong affection for the monarchy, which was reflected in a continuing mode of naming public houses after royalty. The name Queen Adelaide particularly came to the fore in 1850 (just after her death).
We have little information about the earliest years of the Maldon Queen Adelaide pub, but it would appear that things did not go particularly smoothly. William Newman was in debt and in 1841 he borrowed a further sum of money from Osborne – this time £150. However, things went from bad to worse and, unable to repay his loans, Newman had no alternative but to sell his new pub to Osborne for the knock down price of just £190!
John Posford Osborne put a tenant in the Queen Adelaide called Charles Taverner and in 1848 he “sold” the place to his son, Arthur Thomas Osborne, for £300. “A.T”, as he was known, along with associate A.O. Stopes eventually ran a brewery company which had some 63 public houses attached to it.
The Census Returns tell us that James Freeman was the landlord in 1861 and the 1873 Ordnance Survey for Maldon clearly shows the building facing on to High Street, with Victoria Road not yet constructed and extensive grounds to the rear (there was also a coal yard nearby). A.T. Osborne continued to own the place until 1882 when he sold out to the brewers W.W. Daniell & Sons of Colchester (who years later would become part of Truman’s).
The year 1899 heralded another major change in the life of the public house. William Stocks was licensee at that stage and Daniell’s continued to be the owners. For some reason that is not entirely clear, the Queen Adelaide was re-named the Warwick Arms. The real Queen Adelaide had been dead for some 50 years and was slipping from people’s memories. In addition the Earl of Warwick and Brooke (of Easton Lodge, Great Dunmow, and Warwick Castle) was installed at Colchester on the 24th May 1899 as the first Provincial Grand Master of the Freemasons of Essex. The Earl (husband to Frances Evelyn Maynard, “Daisy”, Countess of Warwick, a leading light in the Prince of Wales “Marlborough House set”) had, in fact, visited Maldon three years earlier when, on the 15th July 1896, Maldon was chosen as the venue for the meeting of Provincial Grand Lodge. It could well be, therefore, that the name change had a Masonic link and was in recognition of the Earl’s appointment.
At around the same time the “Victoria Road Building Estate” was being established, with a few remaining plots for sale “in good positions”. Roads had been made, sewers and Gas and Water mains had been laid. Victoria Road joined (and indeed still joins) High Street adjacent to the Warwick Arms and regular, local custom must have increased from this time.
A slightly later postcard shows the building in all its glory, complete with etched glass advertising a Bar Parlour and Saloon Bar, and with a painted sign proudly announcing, ‘The Warwick Arms. Daniell and Sons Breweries Limited’. Another picture indicates that an entrance from Victoria Road (now blocked) gave access to, of all things, a ‘Tea Room’!
Like most businesses, the place has had mixed fortunes since those early years and many other chapters in its fascinating history await research – stories about the successes of the Darts Team during the 1920s and 30s for instance; tales of the larger than life clientele that frequented the place during the war years; the periods under different landlords including the Gillespie and Bardwell families; and recent further changes in name, including The Yardarm and Clarkies.
Thankfully, the Warwick Arms once again carries the name that it first adopted back in 1899, reminding us that, as well as a place that serves a very good pint, this is also a house steeped in local history.
©2003 Stephen P. Nunn
Photo: The Stephen P. Nunn Collection
References:
Cox, B. English Inn and Tavern Names (CENS. 1994)
Creasey, B. The Countess, Her Garden & The Prince (Easton Lodge Leaflet)
Fitch, E.A. Maldon & the River Blackwater (Gowers. 1894)
Nunn, S.P. Maldon & the Handshake of History (Maldon & Burnham Standard. 17/3/1988)
Ordnance Survey for Maldon (1873)
Peaty, I.P. Essex Brewers (Brewery History Soc. 1992)
Stubbings, K. Here’s Good Luck to the Pint Pot – A Brief History of Maldon’s Inns, Alehouses and Breweries (Kelvin Brown Publications, 1988)
Weir, A. Britain’s Royal Families (Pimlico. 1989)
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