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From an email received 1 February 2022. Just seen this posted
in a Swanley group on facebook re "Tom
and Jerry" and "Royal George," suggests they were not 2 separate
places.
The census records for 1841, 1851 and 1861 tell us that John
Mills ran a small Beer house along Wood Street in Swanley Village
(now numbered 5 and 5a). It was called a "Tom and Jerry".
A Beer house was a type of public house created in the United
Kingdom by the 1830 Beer house Act, legally defined as a place
"where beer is sold to be consumed on the premises".
They were also known as 'small' or 'Tom and Jerry' shops.
Existing public houses were issued with licences by local
magistrates under the terms of the Retail Brewers Act 1828, and were
subject to police inspections at any time of the day or night.
Proprietors of the new beer houses, on the other hand, simply had to
buy a licence from the government costing two guineas per annum,
Until the Wine and Beer house Act 1869 gave local magistrates the
authority to renew beer house licences.
So, for nearly 40 years from 1830 Beer houses or "Tom and Jerrys"
were not subject to local authority control and enjoyed a profitable
and sometimes rather wild existence.
John had worked the land all his life but at the age of around 50
decided to try his luck with this new phenomenon of an unlicensed
Beer house.
The 1841 census describes John as a Tom & Jerry and Agricultural
Labourer, So working in the fields when opportunities and needs
arose. The 1851 census does not mention the Beer house, but the 1861
census does. It looks as though he and his family were resident
there all through this period. John died in 1865, 3 years after his
wife Charlotte.
Their daughter, also named Charlotte married James Dunmall in
1853 and were living along Goss Hill in 1861 but had moved to Wood
street by 1871 - it looks very likely that they took over the beer
house when her father died. The 1881 census shows James still there
although Charlotte had died. The premises now has the pub name of
the "Royal George".
James remained there through the 1891 and 1901 census periods
until his death in 1902, after which his son Edwin took over. He was
there with his family as the licensee in 1911. By the time of the
1921 census, Edwin is still living there although the pub is no
more.
The premises had returned to residential use, split into two.
They are today numbered 5 and 5a Wood Street. |
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