The Bell PH, Cheyney Street

Also known as The Bell Inn and The One Bell. The Bell is now a private house 16 Cheyney Street.

The property was an inn from as early as 1737 and was part of the Steeple Morden Manor Estate, which was purchased by the Earl of Hardwicke in 1755. At that time it was described as: “Messuage called the Bell ale house with 1 acre of meadow late let to Richard Standford at rent of £6 per annum and now let to [blank] Chesham at £7 per annum.”

At the 1892 Wimpole Estate Sale it was bought by P and A H Meyer, brewers of Orwell. The Meyers brewing firm was bought by J and J E Phillips of the Royston Brewery in 1897 and in turn Phillips were bought by J W Green Ltd of Luton in 1949. Green changed their name to Flowers Breweries in 1954, which was bought by Whitbread & Co in 1961.

In October 1913 the property was struck by lightning.

In 1954 the Brewery sold a plot of land on the east end to the Cambridgeshire County Council for the erection of a police house, in the days when each village or so had their own policeman.

The Bell closed in 1957 and its licence was surrendered in March 1958. It was sold with adjoining land, by Flowers Breweries to Peter Prothero. It became the Prothero family home and Pete moved his motor garage business from Hay Street to new garage premises he had built in Cheyney Street.

Tenants of The Bell

Below are copies of the Census Returns 1841-1921 and the 1939 Register.

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