Peldon Rose
Public House
C15, house, extensively altered early C17. Timber framed and plastered, with
red plain tile roof. One storey and attics with 2 storey crosswing at north
end. Crosswing originally jettied now underbuilt. Lean-to extension at north
end. 3:1:1 window range, modern casements with leaded lights. One gabled dormer.
Frame exposed internally. Some C17 doors and panel with C17 scalloped ornament
in low relief C17 chimney stack extensively rebuilt. (RCHM 5).
www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk

Many have written about this ancient public house which sits just before The Strood, the causeway leading to Mersea Island. With views across to the island over flat saltings, whose channels and creeks gleam in the sun, The Rose has lovely cottage gardens with climbing roses and honeysuckle over the porch. It is still a place of refuge for travellers heading for Mersea when the tide covers the road and its chocolate box image has graced many books, postcards and glossy magazines.

A fund of stories abound about The Rose, both factual and mythical; it was badly damaged in the earthquake of 1884, and hit by an incendiary bomb in WW2. It was in the front line of the 1953 East Coast floods and famously served sparrow pie in the 1960s.

It is believed to have been the haunt of smugglers, its pond famously linked to smuggled booty being hidden in its depths. Of course, being a clandestine and illegal operation there are no actual records of smuggling activity at The Rose and when the pond was drained in recent years there was no evidence found of a smuggling past!

Along with tales of smugglers, a previous landlady, Jane Pullen, seems to have been the source of several ghost stories including that of a Roman Centurion marching from the Romano-British barrow just over The Strood.

Mersea's most famous rector, Sabine Baring Gould described all the local landscapes of Mersea, Peldon and Salcott as he would have seen them in the 1870s when he was writing his most famous novel, Mehalah.

There was the inn, an old-fashioned house, with a vine scrambling over the red tile roof, and an ancient standard sign before the door, on the green, bearing a rose, painted the size of a gigantic turnip. Sabine Baring Gould: Mehalah

According to www.pubhistory.com the Peldon Rose Inn was first registered in 1454 but the building is thought to date back to 1380 (sadly no sources are given for this information); no doubt it was originally built as a farmhouse.

Collecting together the few early references to the Rose in the Peldon Churchwardens' Accounts [Essex Record Office D/P 287/5/3] on 9th May 1755 there is a note Pd At ye Rose Rambling Day 00-10-06 which will be a reference to the occasion of beating the bounds of the parish, when, no doubt, refreshments were required along the way.

Traditionally done on Ascension Thursday (40 days after Easter) each parish maintained the memory of where the boundaries lay in the days before mapping. In such a scattered parish it's likely the Rose was an ideal half-way point for rest and recuperation.

On 2nd October 1799 farmer Joseph Page of Fingringhoe went a shooting at Peldon and dined at the Rose [ERO D/DU 251/89]

One of the wealthy landowners who owned the Rose was James Blatch who also owned the house now known as Crouched Friars in Colchester, properties on East Mersea, oyster layings at Little Wigborough, property in Suffolk and Home Farm in Peldon.

Comparing a map commissioned for Blatch in 1788 [ERO. D/DHt P26] with an earlier map drawn in 1728 for Mary Thurston [ERO D/DHt P3] it would seem she too had owned the pub and it was part of the estate sold by her to Blatch.

Blatch died on Christmas Eve in 1811 and he bequeathed all his property to his wife with the condition it be sold after her death.

Elizabeth Blatch died in 1815 and the properties were sold as advertised in the Ipswich Journal of 3rd August 1816.

In a parcel of documents held at Essex Record Office [ERO D/Del E14] there is a

Description of Estates late belonging to James Blatch Esquire, deceased, ordered by his will to be sold

The whole estate including Home Farm and 27 acres in Peldon called Rose Farm (opposite The Rose Inn) was split up and divided into 12 lots; lot 8 describes the Rose Inn with three acres.

Lot 8
Consists of a Copyhold Messuage or Tenement and public house called The Rose in Peldon in the occupation of Joseph Theobald with 3 acres of Land adjoining - This Lot is holden of the Manor of Peet Hall and subject to a fine certain on every admission & the Quit rent to be apportioned

Amongst the parcel of documents is an abstract of title which reveals who was the successful purchaser of The Rose.

Abstract of the Title of the Devisees in trust of the late James Blatch Esq; Decd. to a Copyhold Estate called The Rose and certain lands called Apes & Pulfins

On the first page of this document there is a later note in a different hand

Witness: The Messuage or Inn called The Rose & a small piece of land thereto adjoining were sold & conveyed to John Bawtree Esquire

Disappointingly, the date is not given. I suspect The Rose was sold to Bawtree by private arrangement before the auction. Only a few of Blatch's properties were auctioned in August 1816 at The Rose and it did not include the pub.

The Bawtrees were a well-known family of farmers, maltsters, brewers and bankers and John Bawtree (Senior) was to build a brewery at St. Botolph's in Colchester and acquire a large number of inns and public houses in and around Colchester and Harwich.

Colchester's Gazette of 8th January 2018 revisited the setting up of Bawtree's brewery during the French wars.

... in 1799 ... a group led by John Bawtree, realised the soldiers who had been gathered in the town, due to the fear of a French invasion, might just be thirsty.

They put up the money to build by far the largest brewery Colchester had ever seen, on the junction of what is now Osborne Street and St Botolph's Street.

It was huge and produced the popular tipple of the time - London porter beer, making it one of the first outside the capital to do so. [Colchester Gazette 8th January 2018 Lauren Oldershaw]

John Bawtree (Senior) died in 1824 at his son's house in Abberton, and was succeeded by his son, also John. However, John Bawtree (Junior) retired in May 1827 and sold the brewery business.

The Morning Advertiser of 21st April 1827 advertised an auction on behalf of Bawtree of 60 inns and public houses to be held at The Angel Inn, Colchester on 2nd May, 16th and 30th.

These highly respectable and well-frequented Inns and Public Houses included The Rose, Peldon, and the Kings Head, Great Wigborough, while their tenants were under notice to quit.

Prior to the sale in 1829, an inventory of all the brewery's assets was made and written in a notebook in copperplate handwriting. [ERO D/Del B 35/1] No longer numbering sixty (presumably some were sold separately) fifteen inns and public houses were up for auction.

Inventory of the Freehold Brewery situated in the Parish of St. Botolph, Colchester and Fifteen Copyhold and Leasehold, Public Houses...

Sold by Appraisement from John Bawtree Esq to Adolphus William Hume Esq

Among the fifteen public houses being sold was The Rose

The Rose Peldon Copyhold Estate with
about 3 acres of land, Garden and a Stable in
the occupation of Joseph Theobald
Land Tax redeemed
Quit Rent 5/- per annum

There is a table at the back of this inventory listing the debts and rents for all the pubs. In an untitled column where the entries are either 'Good' or 'Doubtful', next to The Rose's landlord, Joseph Theobald, 'Doubtful' probably implies he was not good for the debt. His debts amount to £235. 4. 4 and his rent to February was £8. 17. 1. A memorandum alongside this sum says Rent from Michaelmas. Four years later he was still landlord!

Amongst the detailed inventory for the brewery are the horses, a brown mare called Duke, and two black horses called Tinker and Dedman. Wheeled carriages listed are a broad Wheel Wagon, Four Wheel Dray, Tumbril, a Four Wheel small Dray and ...a wheelbarrow!

On 9th March, 1829, John Bawtree sold the brewery with 15 licenced houses to Adolphus William Hume for the sum of £19,265. 4. 0.

An indenture exists from 1830 and is held in the Essex Records Office. It records a transaction in the manorial court of Peet Hall presided over by the steward William Wallace Francis, when the Rose appears to change hands for £1,500 on 19th March 1830 but is probably recording a loan.

The indenture is between Adolphus William Hume (formerly of Reading now of Colchester) and Robert Newton Lee. Hume was admitted to the property on 29th April 1830 with the proviso that if he fails to adhere to the financial clauses by 19th September 1831 the indenture is null and void. I think it likely that Hume was taking out a short-term loan from Lee.

It must be remembered that 'owners' like Bawtree or, in this case, Hume, were in fact tenants of the Lord of the Manor of Pete Hall and all transactions had to be ratified in the Manorial Court with many customary conditions imposed.

The 1830 indenture is revealing as to the land that belonged to The Rose.

All that copyhold messuage or tenement and public house called or known by the name of the Rose situate in Peldon in the said County of Essex. And also all that piece or parcel of land adjoining to the said messuage or tenement in Peldon aforesaid on the north side thereof containing by estimation 3 a[cres] little more or less And also all that piece of Garden Ground lying on the other side of the road opposite to the said messuage as the said messuage or tenement land and premises are now and for some time past have been in the occupation of Joseph Theobald or his assigns And also all that piece or parcel of land or ground containing by estimation 40 r[oods] more or less part of the waste of the said Manor of Peet Hall lying on the East side of the said Copyhold field and abutting upon the Road or Kings Highway leading from Colchester to Mersea towards the East upon the messuage or tenement and premises called the Rose towards the South upon the said Copyhold field towards the West and upon the Copyhold land of William Green Esq towards the North and now in the tenure or occupation of Joseph Theobald or his Assigns. [ERO D/DEl B35/1]

Hume was not to have the brewery business for long for in the Essex Herald on 12th February 1833 another auction is advertised on behalf of the trustees of Hume, now deceased.

This auction of 40 lots was to be held on Fri 21st and 22nd February 1833 at The Cups. Again, all the lots belonged to the brewery on Botolph's Street and comprised 35 inns and public houses, including, locally, the Kings Head, Wigborough, the Sun at Salcott and The Rose, Peldon.

Lot 28 is listed as
A very old established COPYHOLD PUBLIC HOUSE & LAND, SITUATED IN PELDON, within Seven Miles of Colchester, and facing the High Road leading from that Town to Mersea Island. It is the only Public House in the Parish, and must consequently ensure a considerable trade. The Rooms are well-proportioned and calculated to accommodate a large Company. There are attached about THREE ACRES OF LAND, A LARGE AND WELL PLANTED GARDEN, AND STABLE; In the occupation of John THEOBALD, a Yearly Tenant. Land Tax redeemed.

Subject to a Quit Rent of 5s. per Annum. [Sale Catalogue ERO D/Del B35/17]

John Posford Osborne of Great Wigborough (1793 - 1863), a rising entrepreneur, who had run Bawtree's brewery for Bawtree and Hume, was the successful bidder at the auction in 1833, first selling off his own smaller brewery premises nearby.

Again, the purchase included the substantial Bawtree's Brewery holdings in St. Botolph's and Stanwell Street comprising a brewhouse, stores and residences as well as the 35 inns and public houses. The brewery, subsequently known as Osborne's, was producing more than 4,000 barrels a year. John Posford Osborne was also behind Peldon gaining a licence for a second public house in 1840, The Plough. A very successful and wealthy business man and property owner, he is still remembered in Colchester in the name Osborne Street and Arthur Street which he named after his son.

One of Osborne's long-term gestures was to use the property boundary of the brewery to drive what became Osborne Street through to St John's Street to provide a convenient short cut for horse drawn traffic coming up Magdalen Street from the Hythe. [Colchester Gazette 8th January 2018]

Listed in the tithe awards for Peldon published in 1840 and again in an 1841 register of electors for Peldon, the next owner, another absentee landlord/owner, was Olding Butler. Living on private means he had been born in central London and married Adeliza Barron in Colchester in 1806. They were to raise their family in Colchester but later moved to Kent. In the register of electors for Colchester he is living on North Hill and he appears in the town's poll book of 1835. He was to remain the Manorial Tenant of The Rose until his death in 1869, after which the pub was sold in 1870.

From the parish records for Peldon, we know Sarah Edwards was a landlady of The Rose in the late 1700s and early 1800s. In the 1798 Land Tax Redemption records for Peldon, James Blatch is listed as owner and Sarah Edwards as his tenant of an unnamed property; everything points to this being The Rose. Luckily the Essex Record Office has wills for Sarah and her husband, both described as innkeepers.

Henry Edwards, I believe, married Sarah in 1778 and it would seem, judging by bequests in their wills, that they had both been married before and had children as a result of both marriages. Henry died on 10th September 1793, and it is clear Sarah continued to run the pub, probably until close to her death in 1818; she died in East Mersea probably at her daughter's home. We do not know when they took on the tenancy of the pub but it would seem they ran the pub for at least 25 years.

From her will, Sarah seems a very canny business woman - indeed she served as Peldon's Parish Overseer of the Poor in 1801. Sarah is able to sign her name on her will whereas her husband can only make his mark. Sarah makes bequests to her grandchildren with conditions that the money be used for their maintenance and education and they be apprenticed

to any Art Trade or Profession for....their Advancement in the World

A note, written in Sarah's own hand concerning a bequest to her sister-in-law, Mary Springett, further demonstrates her financial acuity.

Oct. 4th 1809 My desire is that Mary Springet should take the £10 Mencioned in my will for her att 2/6 per week, as I think it will doe her most good Sarah Edwards

It is interesting to note that her married daughters seem to have made good marriages, with their husbands listed as farmers or yeomen. Deborah Borrodell née Edwards, probably Sarah's step-daughter, married James Borrodell, tenant farmer of Pete Hall.

The earliest landlord listed in trade directories is John Tibball whose name appears in the Pigott's trade directory of 1828/9. He will have been landlord at the time of the change of ownership when Bawtree sold to Hume and therefore one of those landlords who had been given notice to quit.

By the 1832/3 trade directory the landlord was John Theobald (who must surely be related to Joseph Theobald mentioned in the indenture above) and in 1839 John Green.

In the 1840 tithe awards for Peldon, Olding Butler is listed as the owner of The Rose and the tenant was Mrs Theobald (presumably in the interim her husband had died). [I suspect by the time of the publication of the tithe awards in 1840, Mrs Theobald had gone and John Green taken over.] No further biographical details for these early landlords have been found as yet.

In the 1841/2 register of electors, Olding Butler is listed as having a copyhold house in Peldon owned by William Lappage who we know to be the next landlord of The Rose.

It would appear that William Lappage, as a young man, had been one of the ringleaders of a group of Peldon labourers (in fact almost all of the village's labourers) who on 10th December 1830 demanded better wages from their masters. The mythical leader of this movement, which elsewhere, locally, fired hayricks and destroyed threshing machines, was known as 'Captain Swing' (see Captain Swing Mersea Museum ).

The three ring leaders were arrested and on 4th January 1831 were subsequently tried at the Quarter Sessions in Chelmsford having

tumultuously and unlawfully assembled at Peldon and with many others at present unknown conspiring by force to raise their wages and committing a riot.
SENTENCE: convicted of riot. To be imprisoned and kept to hard labour.

William Lappage was sentenced to 12 months hard labour, William Warner 15 months and William Smith 6 months. They at least avoided Transportation.

William next appears in the 1841 census as the publican of The Rose. Most pub landlords at this time would have had another line of business and Lappage appears in Post Office and White's trade directories, from the 1840's to the early 50's, variously described as a thatcher, victualler or innkeeper.

An advert in the Essex Standard of 29th March 1844 lists The Rose and William Lappage as stockists of Betts Patent Brandy.

Lappage also appears in the 1851 census and died, aged 50, in 1853 having been landlord of The Rose for at least thirteen years.

The next publican, whose first appearance is in the 1855 Kelly's trade directory, was Thomas Nelson; he was to remain there until his death in 1880.

He also appears in two censuses and numerous trade and post office directories variously described as a bricklayer, builder, innkeeper and victualler. He was to stay at the Rose for over twenty five years.

There is a sale catalogue from August 1870 in the possession of the current owner and landlady of the Rose. In it The Rose and two cottages were being auctioned. The pub landlord, Thomas Nelson, bought the two cottages for £85 but we do not know for certain who bought the Rose.

Sale documents for The Rose and two cottages 1870 (courtesy of A Everett)
[See Appendix 1 for a transcription]

The next landlord and landlady were George Pullen and his wife, Jane. The Rose continued to be run by the family until the late 1950's. [See The Pullens of The Peldon Rose Mersea Museum ]

Jane Pullen née Mead was born in Messing in 1852, the daughter of Samuel and Sarah Mead. By consulting censuses and Kelly's Trade Directories we discover her family moved to Mersea by 1861 and both her father, Samuel, and brother, Charles, went into the pub trade, running The Dog And Pheasant and The Fox on Mersea.

George Pullen, whom Jane married in 1868, subsequently took over The Fox from his father-in-law and was still listed as landlord there in 1878.

By the 1881 census George and Jane had two children George William aged 12 and Lily J aged 9 and were running The Rose. George is described as an Innkeeper and market gardener. So it would seem that George and Jane took over The Rose between 1878 and 1881. Or were they in fact the successful buyers of The Rose at the auction in 1870 while continuing to run The Fox?

It was during the Pullens' ownership that The Rose was badly damaged in the 1884 earthquake, many tiles were lost and one of the chimneys fell through the roof.

The effects of the 1884 earthquake on The Peldon Rose

Times were changing and the Copyhold Act of 1852 allowed copyhold tenants to pay a fee in order to make their properties freehold or leasehold. This process continued until the Law of Property Act in 1925 abolished copyhold completely but not before landlady, Jane Pullen, still a copyhold tenant of Pete Hall, had a fright.

According to Manorial custom, a 'heriot' was demanded upon the death of a tenant. This heriot usually involved surrendering one's best beast to the Lord of the Manor but was later commuted to a cash payment.

Miss Wilkinson, now living at Tollesbury (1955) remembers quite well the day the Steward of Pete Hall Manor, demanded from Mrs Jane Pullen of the Peldon Rose on the demise of her husband in 1909, the heriot due to the lord of the Manor, Mr A Eagle of Pete Hall.
Mrs Pullen's best beast was Kitty, the grey mare, behind which she and Florence Wilkinson drove weekly into Colchester market. Kay Gilmour Peldon In Essex: Village over the Marshes

Miss Wilkinson related that Jane wept bitterly at the request but was able to make a monetary settlement instead of parting with her beloved Kitty.

Upon George's death in 1909 his widow, Jane, took over and ran the pub while, at the same time bringing up her grandson, Basil Ivan Pullen. Upon her death, grandson Ivan became landlord, and famously the leader of Peldon's Home Guard during the Second World War.

Assent recording Jane Pullen's death and the transferring of the Rose to her grandson, Basil Ivan Pullen in 1935: courtesy Ariette Everett
[See Appendix 2 for a transcription]

It would have been while the Pullen family were running The Rose that the grandfather of a long-time Peldon resident, Chris Moore, (in the village from 1965 - 2022) used to deliver beer to the pub by horse and cart from the brewery on East Hill. Silas Edward Taylor, born in Ardleigh in 1881, and described as a shopkeeper at 54, East Street, Colchester, in 1914, later appears in trade directories as the landlord of The Old Whalebone 22, East Hill in 1925 and 1933. The pub closed in 1935. It was in 1925 that the brewery on East Hill (formerly the Eagle Brewery, then Colchester Brewing Co.) was taken over by Ind Coope and closed down which would date Silas's deliveries to The Rose from the brewery to pre-1925.

During WW2, in February 1944, the pub was hit by an incendiary bomb. Neighbours helped flick off the burning debris with sticks when the bomb hit the Rose's roof.

The famous Rose Inn was illuminated one Friday morning by the incendiaries, one of which fell on the roof. By good fortune it must have struck a joist for it bounced clear without penetrating. Ceiling plaster was strewn all over the floor and onto the bed but no one was hurt. Hervey Benham, Essex At War

A 1950's advertisement placed by Ivan Pullen in Map and Guide to Mersea Island.

It would have been during Ivan's time at The Rose that the 1953 floods so badly affected the east coast. Neighbours were flooded, with those nearest the Strood having to climb onto their roofs while the Pullen family took in their eccentric neighbour, Ernie Richardson. Ernie lived on a pontoon by the sea wall and was swept away as he tried to escape by boat. He arrived at The Rose soaking and freezing where he was offered a change of clothes and warm food and drink.

In 1957 Ivan put The Rose on the market

In 1959, Ivan sold The Rose to the Vaughans and the record of this transaction was added to the 1935 assent pictured above.

By a conveyance dated the 11th day of June 1959
and made between the within named Basil Ivan Pullen of the
one part and Edward John Vaughan and Sylvia Vaughan of the
other part The Rose Inn Peldon and land having an area
of 1.309 acres was conveyed to the said Edward John Vaughan
and Sylvia Vaughan in fee simple and their right to produc-
tion of the within written Assent was thereby acknowledged.

Edward John Vaughan was a builder; he had built the house near the Strood called Mehalah and lived at Bonners Farm, close by. His sister, Cissy Ollivant, and her husband, Charles, became landlady and landlord. [See The Ollivants of The Peldon Rose Mersea Museum ]

It was the Ollivants who were to gain fame (or notoriety?) for making sparrow pie, which, it is believed, had been on the menu in days gone by.

The Independent Online reported the occasion that on 16 January 1967 at The Peldon Rose a sparrow pie containing 100 sparrows was served, the reporter surmising that it was brought about by remaining members of the once-common 'sparrow clubs'. (There is a record of Peldon having a Sparrow Club in 1843). [See Sparrow Pie Mersea Museum ]

Cissy was to die in 1969 at the age of 59 and her widower, Charles, carried on running the pub with the help of their son Peter until 1970.

This article appeared in the Essex County Standard in 1970:

Mr Charles Ollivant has moved out [of The Rose] to live with his son in Colchester and Mrs and Mrs Albert Flynn have moved in.

Mr Ollivant who is 73 was born in a pub and met his wife, Cis, while his mother was tenant of the now demolished Fleece Hotel in Colchester. Mrs. Ollivant died about a year ago. She was renowned for her culinary specialities and hit the headlines a few years ago when one of them, sparrow pie, aroused national controversy.

The Rose is a free house and Mr Flynn owns it in partnership with Mr Roy Hobson who lives at Gidea Park. It is Mr Flynn's first pub of his own.

In 1970 The Rose was sold to R H Hobson and others which was presumably the Flynns. The Flynns then became landlord and landlady for a few years before the Hobsons took over.

Roy Hobson ran a business in Ampthill, selling collating machines, with an office in Ilford, so he was often to-ing and fro-ing for work. He and his wife, Jean, lived over the road opposite The Rose in Rose Farm.

The Hobsons were to continue running the pub until, in 1985, they sold to their good friends Alan and Ariette Everett.

Ariette tells me she and her husband had been visiting the Hobsons at The Rose when it came up in conversation that the pub was on the market.

The Everetts knew The Rose well and having lived in Hornchurch, Upminster and Hutton Mount they were wanting to move to the country. With Ariette's passion for cooking and wanting to run her own restaurant, the decision was made to buy the pub, which has been in her family's ownership ever since.

It is clear from local newspapers that The Rose has always been used as a meeting place for many purposes. Sarah Quincey, Lady of the Manor of Peldon Hall, held her Manorial Courts there in the first half of the nineteenth century. There were also auctions of local properties held there including the sale of Peldon's workhouse cottages in 1837 and rather appropriately, the auction of some of James Blatch's properties including Rose Farm in 1816.

Property owners in Peldon and other local villages had meetings for the Winstree Hundred Association in the Rose. A meeting of this Association set up for effectually apprehending and punishing Felons is advertised in the local paper for 11a.m. 26th March 1787 at The Rose.

In the Essex Standard of 5th April 1872, under the heading THE CHASE Times and Places of Meet, an advertisement includes details of the Essex and Suffolk Foxhounds gathering at 11am at The Rose (weather permitting) for the last day this season. No doubt a long-standing tradition the hunt has been photographed in more recent times.

The hunt assembling outside the Peldon Rose Inn (dated before 1940)