To Tickettyboo, AlanBoyd, johnwarrn and MollyC
From having no information to having boatloads of it is wonderful! Thank you all!
Just a few points to consider:
According to information I received from Percheron Properties (the estate management company for Vaux Breweries) in the 1990's: George Ornsby bought the Blue Bell on 7th December 1821. He sold it to George Walton on 13th February 1841. The new owner and his son (also George Walton) kept it until 13th April 1894 but during that time, there may have been other tenants or managers.
Other sources imply that George Walton was in the pub (tenant or manager) for at least three years before he actually bought it.
The Lizards farm, where John Newton spent his later days, was a short distance out of Lanchester but information from the Halmote Court states that some of its fields and garths actually bounded on the land attached to the Blue Bell. From the farmhouse to the Blue Bell or the Kings Head was an easy walk so he could easily have run the farm whilst supervising either or both of the pubs although I believe the Innis family may well have been sub-let to run it.
John Newton may have been the owner of the pub businesses without owning the premises – in which case he could still be the licence holder. And, in the case of the Innis family, they might have simply been employees or they could have been partners. Mary Innis was mentioned, along with John Newton, in the Halmote records referring to The Lizards farm even after she had left the Blue Bell. The two were named as tenants. Mary Innis’ maiden name was Mary Dodds – I wonder if there was a family connection?
John Newton may well have hung on to the businesses as an extra source of income – as licence holder, he would take the greater part of the profits but the manager would still make a good living. It also needs to be remembered that his time there was 50 or 60 years before the local magistrates began to insist on the licensee living on the premises.
So, even many years after ceasing to live in either pub, he was still very active in the business side of things.
The press cutting supplied by boo is also interesting as it dates the Blue Bell back to at least 1737 and that is the oldest reference I have to any pub in Lanchester.
Neville
