July 2008:
The usual updates from my excellent, and brilliant researchers. The Suffolk area is nearly complete for 1861 now, thanks to Colin Ager; and the excellent photographs just keep coming from Stephen Harris.
Of importance is the fact that I have just started a couple of new sites : Kent villages & Suffolk Villages. All Pubs in Kent & Suffolk are slowly being moved across to the new sites, with updates only happening on new sites.
There were a few problems with this site recently, largely a serious mistake by Lunarpages, who just deleted the entire site, TWICE! Their support team are pretty good, but I got a little peed off the second time, as the site was unavailable for 3-4 days each time, and I had to revert to a backup which was six weeks old! I think the site is back to normal, but if this happens again?
May 2008:
I spent the holiday weekend looking at the Essex / London area, e.g. Stratford, Leyton, Barking, Walthamstow etc. Of interest for these area is that they move back and forwards in Trade Directories, e.g. the London North Directory is excellent in 1902, which has a street directory listing for most of these areas, then they reappear in Essex Directories in 1917 and 1922 for a short while; so I have added beer retailer listings for both these years at Essex 1917 & Essex 1922. These places are then re-introduced into the London directories.
I also noticed that Walthamstow had some massive gaps from this previous research, and have moved back to the 1901 census for Walthamstow, a massive 75 directory listings with an average (minimum) of forty and up to eighty pages each, which has now been completed. Islington has also been updated with many new 1901 entries.
As an extra, I have also just added another new update by Colin Ager for Suffolk from 1861 census, and various early Suffolk trade directories; and more new pictures by Stephen Harris for anywhere that I find a Pub!
The latest details show 17,318 pages and 4,366 jpeg images plus 392 gif images on the site; compare this with the details listed here in February (see below). Thanks to everybody who supports the site.
April 2008:
Incidentally, every time I update a page, it changes to the newer, simpler format (look and feel). I have just spent a day and a half updating the whole of Camberwell, mainly 1880 to 1920.
I had an email from a North London CAMRA member, and hope this leads to some new info soon, watch this space. I am keen to add information from all CAMRA organisations if available.
I am getting regular updates of census and trade directory entries for the Suffolk area, kindly provided by Colin Ager; plus the usual plethora of miscellaneous Pubs photos from Stephen Harris. I have spent a couple of days at the Essex Record Office looking at Petty Sessions Victuallers records. Firstly, the staff at the ERO are a wonderful bunch. I did not necessarily need their help, but others did. Everyone was made welcome - WELL DONE to the ERO.
A considerable update has been added, or is being added to the Becontree hundred, this includes Barking, Dagenham, Woodford, Walthamstow, Wanstead, Leyton , Leytonstone , Stratford, Plaistow & Canning Town etc ; this update has added a whole host of new beer houses and their relevant pub sign / name especially Canning Town, plus I have added the 1886 Trade Directory for Canning Town too - fairy gold dust!
Newhaven in Sussex has been completely updated, thanks to Peter Mason; most of Newhaven now has an additional picture, plus lots of historical changes, more updates to come.
I have dropped Web Expression in favour of another Microsoft product (both are rubbish, some are less rubbish). I spend large amounts of time editing pages in textpad to fix problems, c'est la vie ; I plan to try out ubuntu on one of my older machines, of which I have many.
April showers brings an incredible addition to Islington. Stephen Harris is updating me with modern photographs and pub histories for this area. Also, I have just rebuilt a new PC in vista, which was .. ( Vista is a whole pain in the proverbial, another Microsoft beta product).
March 2008:
Nearing the end of March, 2008, and I have just added around 900 pubs in Hertfordshire. These have been added using the 1912 Trade Directory, and I am also adding more information from Trade Directories between 1882 and 1937 as quickly as I am able. No census information added as of yet. Pubs are sometimes relocated as I rediscover new information. I need some pictures to add to these pages.
Also, I have been updating a few of the Dover, Kent Pubs - through communication with Paul Skelton, who runs a far more useful site for Dover than I could ever accomplish - see Dover History.
The last week or so has been taken up by updating the site to a new format, mostly in Kent, but also elsewhere. Eventually the whole site will be in the simpler format, updates are continuing all of the time. I started a new page, an Image Search for those who are looking for images, and cannot find them on the site - I suffer from copyright, and cannot just copy any images that I find, these are some copyrighted and other good image sites - feel free to email me about anything useful that you find - kevan.
There are now absolutely hundreds of photographs of nearly every Public House in Suffolk (thanks to Tony Green). These are all signed by Tony, but even better, I love the signature of his bicycle in nearly every picture. More to come, I am about half way there.
If you have a spare half hour or so, also check out the email stupiditys - they are funny; and there is a host of other useful and interesting material, most Pub related; the Linux page look good too
February 2008:
A major update of the Suffolk Pubs History has been added over the last few days, this always takes time. I did discover along the way that another site was 'copying' all of this information, although the site is now linking back with a reference. We are now good friends.
Canvey Island has another major addition, with a whole host of additions to the Ozonia Hotel, and Henry Goodhind, who ran the establishment during WWII.
Sussex has been added, in the first instance a lot of work on Brighton, and now the alphabetical index of Sussex A - Z, plus many other areas . This will take some time to complete, probably a few weeks, so expect this all some time in March 2008; but much of it is alreadry available, but continuing to build.
Not entirely London, but more importantly Essex. I was chatting to the Foxearth site, what a brilliant site, and spotted some brilliant non-existent Essex maps. These are brilliant.
Some statistics: there are 15,355 html pages (these are ordinary pages, mostly Pubs or listings), there are 3,640 jpeg images, plus 376 gif images. In fact, in total, there are just over 20,000 individual files on the site. (For what it is worth).
In laymans terms, this is about 4,000 pictures and about 14,000 Pubs and Beer Houses, in London, Essex, Kent, Surrey & Suffolk. There are also Sussex on a sister site (e.g. Brighton). When I find the time, Hertfordshire is next.
There is a major update being added for ALL Islington Pubs at present, this is already giving some surprising results. If you have publicans in this area, please let me know if you have any useful information. A major update of the Roebuck, Rochester in Kent was added today, therefore most of the Rochester area was updated at the same time.
Clapham has just been added, this includes parts of Battersea (modern) and New Wandsworth (old). The 1899 London listing is now completed, well, with about 90% of the relevant Pubs on the site. I am quite impressed with this, and I was quite surprised how few Pubs were missing. This listing does not list all the Beer Houses, Hotels etc, but is a good place to find a Pub that you are looking for.
January 2008:
Walton on Naze has just had a whole host of pictures added, really good quality, too - enjoy. These are compliments of the Walton History site.
Just for information, Battersea East has just been added (75 new Pubs), and Battersea North West (74 Pubs) is now complete, as is Battersea South West; and all have been added. Whilst I am checking this area, I will probably add Clapham & Wandsworth! I was quite busy in Panto, now finished, and have a full time job, including driving about 500 miles a week to and from work, so bear with me! There are also considerable updates recently from the 1863 Whites Directory for Becontree Hundred and Chafford Hundred - see History of Stratford site, another project, more still to be added.
All the Pubs (excluding Essex) are probably only about 25% complete, so do expect to see entries missing for many periods. Kent & Suffolk may only be 10% complete. As stated many times, I time slice between different areas, my choice. The more input, information and pictures, that you give for a particular place, the sooner it gets updated!
The 1899 London listing is nearly done (still on letter C - in reverse order), meanwhile I time slice between updating different areas. Kent was only added recently, and the Dover listing is looking good now. The sites, e.g. the older Essex 1841 will be updated very soon [Jan 2008], maybe.
December 2007 :
There are some fantastic new images and history related to the Beckwith family at the Lobster Smack, Canvey Island - just added! I reckon there are about 50 to 100 original and new images added every month to the site, although these do not show up on google search very well.
I have continued to update the 1899 London listings, which have taken longer than expected - this brings all of the Pubs listed for 1899 with entries for 1881 -1899 minimum, this is no mean task.
There are now approximately 15,000 pubs and several thousand pictures - google finds only a handful of these pictures in it's image search engine!!!
November 2007:
The London 1899 listing is going through a complete health check, making sure that all Pubs listed in 1the 1899 London listings are complete - this is an interesting update, as most are available, but not All! I am about half way though this check (December 1st 2007).
A1 Tower - Albert Hotel , Albion - Anchor & Hope , Angel - Axe , Bacchus - Beckford Head , Bedford - Belvidere , Ben Jonson - Black Horse , Black Lion - Blue Posts, Blue Posts - Brighton Wine Store , Britannia - Brunswick Tavern , Bucks Head - Buttercup , Cadogan Arms - Cassland , Castle - Charterhouse Hotel , Chelsea Pensioner - Clarence Tavern , Clarendon - Coach & Horses , Coachmakers Arms - Constitutional , Coopers Arms - Crosby Head , Cross Keys - Crown , Crown Distillery - Czars Head , Daisy - Drapers Arms , Drayton - Duke of Devonshire , Duke of Edinburgh - Duke of Wellington , Duke of Wurtenberg - Dyers Arms , Eagle - Eastnor Castle , Edinburgh - Eyre Arms , Falcon - Flower Pot , Flying Horse - Fulham Bridge , Galloway Arms - George , George - Giraffe , Gladstone - Goldhawk Hotel , Goldsmiths Arms - Green Dragon , Green Gate - Guy , Haberdashers Arms - Harwood Arms , Hat & Feathers - Hog in the Pound , Holborn tavern - Hope & Anchor , Hope & Anchor - Hutchinsons Arms , Ifield Arms - Ivy House , Jack of Newbury - Junction Tavern , Kembles Head - Kings Arms , Kings Arms , Kings Head - Knolls Hotel , La Criadera - Lion Hotel , Lion Tap - Lord High Admiral , Lord Hill - Lyric tavern , Macauley Arms - Marlborough Arms , Marlborough Head - Marshal Keate Tavern , Masons Arms - Mitre tavern , Mogul - Myddleton Arms , Nags Head - New Queens Head , New Red Lion - Notting Barn Tavern , Oakley Arms - Old Justice , Old King Harry - Old Rose , Old St Johns gate Tavern - Oxford Vaults , Packington Arms - Pewter Platter , Phene Arms - Plough & Harrow , Plumbers Arms - Prince Albert Hotel , Prince Alfred - Prince of Teck , Prince of Wales , Prince William Henry - Punch Tavern , Queen - Queens Arms , Queens Elm - Queens Tavern , Raby castle - Red House Hotel , Red Lion - Red Lion & French Horn , Red Lion & Key - Rose , Rose - Rouel Tavern , Round House - Royal Oak , Royal Pavilion - Rydon Arms, St Andrew - Seymour Arms , Shades Tavern - Ship , Ship Tavern - Six Bells , Skiddaw Hotel - Stafford Hotel , Stag - Stewart Arms , Still & Star - Sussex Arms , Sussex Hotel - Sydney Arms , Talbot - Three Crowns , Three Cups - Trevor Arms , Trinity Arms - Tyssen Arms , Unicorn - Upton Manor Hotel , Valentine & Orion - Volunteer , Wades Arms - Weymouth Arms , Wheatsheaf - White Hart Tavern , White Horse - White Lion , White Raven - Winchester Hotel , Windmill - Wynford Arms , Yarmouth Arms - Zetland Arms .
Kent is a new area that has been listed recently. This is looking good, and continues to progress. A lot of new input is coming from the Kent researchers. Suffolk is still being considerably updated, this includes every town, all contributions receive credits.
Essex has a considerable quantity of good material on the site, mostly provided by Ian Hunter, but is still being added to - see the new additions to Canvey Island.
Sussex, e.g. Brighton is being hosted on another site. This will be moved to this site eventually
The Trumans quarterly journals from 1948 to about 1970 have been perused and scanned, thanks to Alex Wilkinson for providing a considerable quantity of this research.
I am always looking for pictures and photos, of current Pubs. Stephen Harris of the East London CAMRA continues to supply masses of good quality photographic material for Pubs still open, and also now closed. More appear to fall into this 'closed' category, as the Pubs industry copes with more people drinking wine (from the supermarkets).
All for now (and all links are welcome to this site)
Kevan