Recalling three pubs of the past in Rickmansworth

“Why is our town built like this?” A good question, which we’ll explore over the next few weeks.

Rickmansworth, for example, has a fairly long history, back to the 13th century as a town, and the 10th as a settlement and manor. It was (and still is, of course) close to London, and it stood on or close to some important transport links – as it still does.

One of those was the road connecting the Great North Road at Hatfield and the Great West Road at Reading, which in the 1760s was ‘turnpiked’: that is, a group of people along its route was permitted by Act of Parliament to charge users a toll so that the money could be used for the maintenance of the road, which otherwise would have been the responsibility of the parishes along the road – very unfair as nation-wide industrial traffic grew.

The Bell in 1904. The corner of the George next door can be seen just to the left. Image: Three Rivers Museum Collection (Image: Three Rivers Museum)

Another local turnpike was the Sparrows Herne, which formed Watford High Street as it connected London to the south Midlands via Hunton Bridge, Kings Langley and Aylesbury, but that’s not part of this story.

The Reading and Hatfield road was important enough to give rise to inns and other businesses to service the road traffic, both passenger and freight, and in the middle of Rickmansworth there were three inns in particular - the Swan, the Bell and the George.

The yard of the Swan, 1961. Rather different from the front. Image: Three Rivers Museum Collection (Image: Three Rivers Museum)

They stood almost side by side on the north (Watersmeet) side of the High Street, opposite the Church Street junction. Remarkably, all three were owned by the Skidmores, a very well-known local family of business people, with the inns kept by different people.

All had large yards behind, entered through arches from the street (to the side, for the Bell) and with stables and other outbuildings: they served as the bases for both goods wagons and carts and for passenger carriages – and coaches, until the railways finished off that trade in the 1840s.

The Swan being demolished in 1966. Image: Three Rivers Museum Collection (Image: Three Rivers Museum)

All had meadows or fields behind, the Bell’s and the George’s very long and all three forming a large open space on which the annual livestock fair was held each November 24. The Watford Observer described the fair in detail, almost as relic of the past, on November 27, 1897, at a time when farming was already changing very quickly: but the role of these town centre inns is clear.

But things were changing: the Bell lost its licence in 1912, and the George closed about the same time – the buildings were put to other commercial uses. The Swan continued until 1964, when it too closed.

Members of Rickmansworth Historical Society removing the Swan inn plaque, 1966. It is now in the museum. Image: Three Rivers Museum Collection (Image: Three Rivers Museum)

All three were then demolished to make way for other shops and what was to become Penn Place and later Northway, but they remain important in our understanding of the role of ‘the inn’ in towns like ours.