Notes on Stevenage Illustrated

E. V. Methold

Illustrations by C. Brocl

Printed by Gibbs & Bamforth

1902

The Castle Inn

The Old Castle Inn in 1722 was owned and occupied by Henry Trigg, a grocer, who possessed considerable property in the parish. His name appears for some years before this date as church warden and overseer. In 1722 he offered to the parish the barn at the back of his premises for a workhouse at a yearly rent, the parish at their expense to make it fit for habitation; but this fell through, and Trigg dying soon afterwards this barn acquired great notoriety, on account of the curious wish he expressed in his will, as follows: "And as to my body, I commit it to the west end of my hovel to be decently laid there upon a floor erected by my executor upon the purloyne" (purlin). This house became, in 1774, a public-house called the Old Castle Inn, and John Ray, who was the then landlord, was rated for the poor-rates at £10 per annum. In the great fire of 1807, this house escaped destruction, though all around it were destroyed.

At this house the mail coach running from Hertford to Biggleswade, horsed and driven by a man named Plyer, stopped and changed horses, and it used to be a singular sight to see the horses led cut from the yard through the house and out of the front door into the road, the proper entrance to the stables being in the Back Lane, but to get there from the front or the house is a long way round. The Oundle coach also stopped here to take up and set down passengers.

For another extract see The Old Workhouse.