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Norton
The Public Houses at Norton
The Village Inn - The Three Horseshoes
No village is complete without a little
inn where gossip and beer may be retailed. The present Three Horse Shoes Inn was
erected on the site of an older thatched building about 100 years ago. Simpsons,
the Brewers of Baldock rented the inn from the landowner, Mr Morris Pryor, of
the Manor House, Baldock. For about 200 years previous to the coming of the
Garden City, the licensee had been a member of the Chamberlain family. In the
Letchworth museum is a bundle of old almanacs which hung in the chimney corner.
The first is of the year 1741, and this and the succeeding ones have been
scorched by the flames of the cheerful fire which blazed on a winter's night on
the old inn hearth. These almanacs are the property of Mr Frederick Clark
Chamberlain, who was the last member of his family to preside at the "Horse
Shores". He gave up the tenancy in the very early days of the Garden City.
His grandfather was also the village constable, and each year was in the habit of walking to St Albans to be sworn in and to renew his licence for the sale of beer. ...
From Norton in Hertfordshire [1931]
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The above postcard was published by WHS in the Kingsway Real Photo Series (Number S 3458) and posted in 1908 - which refers to the Three Horseshoes as a "Coffee Shop". The sign on the building says it is a "Fully Licensed Free House: People's Refreshment House Association Ltd: Luncheons Dinners Teas" |
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