Blunham Pubs : The Queens Head

• A quiet tranquil scene of The Queens Head and Blunham Village square, around the early 1900's - Note the childen's Victorian clothes and adjoining cottages, leading up The Hill and West to the village of Great Barford then Bedford eight miles away. The second cottage up from the Queens Head was occupied by a Mr Ben Sims, a coffin maker, also the Father of Albert Sims, a well known Blunham character and his son Alan .
• The Queens Head Beerhouse, now a private dwelling was formely 5, High Street, overlooks the village square and St Edmunds or St James Church, the large corner building opposite was a shop owned by the Judd family. Today a plaque - 'The Ragged Staff' is near the door of the Queens Head so preserving our village history, as so The Oak - Beerhouse along The High St - (91 now) , the Post Office going West, now 12, The Hill, then we have 2 and 4 High Street, two thatched cottages in the square opposite The Queens Head. - The Ovens (a bygone Bakery) and Battle Cottage both from 1699 by a plaque on the cottage wall.
• The large wall- sign of The Queens Head tells us it was Wells's Bedford Ales & Stout on sale at the time for the land workers. - c1895.

Any history of licensed premises in Blunham is complicated by the fact that there have been Two seperate Pubs / Beerhouses both starting as the Ragged Staff and later The Salutation, so I will keep them seperate to avoid confusion. - ( the Queens Head had three names )

• It was probably serving up pints well ‘before’ 1846, but these records were not around to support this. It is interesting to see from my researches of Blunham Pubs, that some tenancies changed hands many times after only short periods, but there were exceptios. Some owners even took the previous name with them on a move, as regards The Salutation being renamed The Old Salutation, trying to keep their regulars and so not to leave .Farming - was so labour intensive, and as such, there were many, many land workers so reliant on man power, before the advent of machinery. Most were regular drinkers due to the very nature of their work, using most of the 8 village ’Drinking - Holes’. They picked Brusell Sprouts, or Bruselling, by hand, in the season with freezing conditions. This Beerhouse was formely The Ragged Staff, changing to The Salutation in 1786 and finally The Queens Head from 1847 to c.1926 when it finally called Last Orders Please.

 

RECORD OF LANDLORDS & TENANTS

THE ORIGIN OF A 'RAGGED STAFF'

• The Ragged Staff - a name used by two pubs, led me all the way back to 1268 and the Coat of Arms of the Earls of Warwickshire. It is here we find within the Quarterings of this Shield ( Coat of Arms ) , a Bear and a Ragged Staff, (a ragged staff is from the branch of a ‘young’ tree stripped of its leaves). There was no village connection, as I first thought in the 1980's , but a nationwide usage within pub names, such as The Bear, Ragged Staff , Kings Arms, The Crown, The George, Queen Adelaide, The Queens Head, and the George & Dragon, all in common use. - The usage of this naming by a Public House, was to show some form of allegiance to the King / Queen as most of the Patrons would have served in one of the two World Wars .

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• Answer to 'Cell of Doom, ref. 15 in 'Misc & Mash' - The question the prisoner deduces is, " will you ask your mate, which door do I walk out of to my Freedom ? " - What ever answer he gets, from 'any' guard, he will Reverse it, so he walks out to certain freedom. . Assume he asks Gd/1 and say he is the truthfull one, he asks Gd/2 (the Liar) he gets a lie and our Gd/1 repeats the reply he got, to our prisoner, who now Reverses it, so walks out. So it must apply in the reverse assumption of guard choice. / Back to Misc and Mash , if Req .

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Last Revision made by Bill Exley on - 6th Apr -2023

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