The Sailor and the Turnpike

The other day I was searching for a Whittuck (as you do), and I came up with two together: -  John Whittuck of Hanham House, and his uncle Charles Whittuck. They are among the many trustees mentioned in the Bristol Turnpike Act of 1758.

This gives a date for commencing preparations for the work of improving roads in the area of Bitton Parish. It confirms that Player’s Map of 1750 shows where the Stradbrook crossing was before the main A431 ran up Bryant’s Hill. The old line of the main road in those days was still that of the Roman road along Chapel Rd. and Lower Chapel Rd, progressing through the beginning of Dundridge Lane and up John Wesley Rd. rejoining the present line at the Trooper.

I was drawn to consider the effects of the Turnpike realignments and a new idea about the development of the Jolly Sailor Inn. 

I would have liked to see what lay between the Community Centre and the Maypole before the re-alignment by the Turnpike Trust.  But the next available map is the Tithe map of 1843.  It seems I shall just have to surmise that it was easy enough to drive a new wide carriageway through there because it would be the back gardens of properties in Anstey’s Road and Lower Chapel Road.

In the Tithe Map of 1843, the ‘parcels’ or plots are numbered. For each numbered plot can be found a name of the plot,  the owner and the occupier according to the Tithe Apportionment Roll.  Plot 119 is ‘Jolly Sailor Inn and Garden’,  Owner Job Thomas and  Occupier Thomas Hill.

The Jolly Sailor (rebuilt), as we now know it, is not on this OS. 1844-1888 map but the old buildings of the earlier inn are shown on the Lower Chapel Rd. frontage just as on the Tithe Map.     

A sketch map or plan for a plot on the corner of Anstey’s Rd. with Church Rd has labelled Anstey’s Rd. as ‘Jolly Sailor Lane’.     

           

This could only have been so called because there was a rear entrance to the garden from there. That is to say that originally the Inn premises stretched from Chapel Rd. to Anstey’s Rd. The main building we have today was completed in 1899 and is on the 1894-1903 OS 25-inch series maps. The old buildings remain as part of the rear of the premises still existing.

Landlords according to Witherspoons : -   1853 - 74. Charles Coole / 1881 - 88. Joseph Bateman / 1893. Joseph Bisset / 1897 - 1901. Albert Phipps 1904. Annie Iles / 1906 - 10. Albert Painter / 1923. Joseph Johnson / 1927 - 31. Ellen Creech 1935 - 37. Walter Jones / 1939. William Meredith            

Charles Cool was C H Painter’s Grandfather.  C H Painter in ‘A Short History of Hanham’ says that Charles Cool brewed his own Beer with water from the well that is now buried in the forecourt of the premises. But by those dates it was before the building that now stands on the frontage was constructed. So the pub in those days was just the buildings that now face onto Lower Chapel Rd.

The earliest record we have found (Bath Chronicle) is that of an Auction 22^nd October 1808 “at the House of Edward Roach called The Jolly Sailor situate at Hanham-Street in the Parish of Bitton in the County of Glocester”.   Edward Roach died intestate, but in his widow Ann’s will of March 1827 the Inn is left to his daughter and her husband George Willmott who married Elizabeth Roach in 1793.

Turnpikes were not ‘Through Route Contracts’ and it appears unlikely that we could find a date of construction for any particular stretches of improvements. It was not like a motorway contract. The Trusts worked here and there to refurbish poor sections of existing routes as funds and labour became available.

JOLLY SAILOR High Street, Hanham - Past Landlords

Building News page 193     18^th August 1899 https://archive.org/details/buildingnewsengl77londuoft/page/192/mode/2up

 “This house has recently been erected at Hanham, near Bristol, for the Bristol Brewery, Georges and Co., Ltd. The materials of which the buildings are composed are local bricks with Bath- stone dressings, the roof being covered with Broseley tiles. The general contract was in the hands of Mr. J. Perkins, and the plumbing and sanitary works were carried out by Messrs. J. Hunter and Son, both of Bristol. Messrs. Walter S. Paul and James, A.A.R.I.B.A., of Bristol, were the architects.”

Year	Source	Owner / Event	Link file etc.
			First building was on the old High Street (Lower Chapel Rd.)
after 1758	Plan of plot on Church Rd/Anstey’s Rd. (plan date post 1843)	Jolly Sailor Lane named before the turnpike came.	Jolly Sailor Lane and its pub must pre-date the New High Street
1808	Bath Chronicle 22nd Oct	“house of Edward Roach called the Jolly Sailor”	Auction of some of Roach’s Property
1827	Ann Roach Will   March	to Daughter Elizabeth	Elizabeth Roach m. George Willmott 1793
1843	Tithe Map & Apportionment Roll	Job Thomas & Thomas Hill	Plot 119 is ‘Jolly Sailor Inn and Garden’.
1853	Landlords list	Charles Cool	C H Painter ‘Short History of Hanham’.
1881		Joseph Bateman
1893		Joseph Bisset
1897/01		Albert Phipps
11th Aug 1899	Building News page 193	New build recently completed	See footprint of complete buildings on 1894-1903 OS 25-inch series map.
1906/10	Landlords list	Albert Painter

Roger Williams  12.03.20
assisted by -Mary Anthill, Douglass crew, Roy Crew and Roger Windsor