Early years

The origins of the Crooked Billet are believed to date back to the early eighteenth century, when the building was two separate cottages. The earliest reference to the Crooked Billet is in an article in the Bucks Free Press edition of September 9, 1979 by local historian Dr Colin Chadwick. This stated that two of the four men who were involved in the ‘Luddite-style activities’ [this was in the 1810’s] during the industrial revolution, were arrested at the Cherry Tree pub in Flackwell Heath and then hanged at the Crooked Billet, while the other two were transported to Australia’. The first record of the Crooked Billet is as a beerhouse was in the 1841 census, when John Smith was the publican. His widow, Maria, was both the landlady and owner by 1872, although the pub was leased to Wethered’s.

During the first decades of the 20th century, it seemed to be in a permanent financial crisis, with Wethered’s making regular loans to support the business. This culminated in the Crooked Billet being mortgaged, and then purchased, by Wethered’s in 1919. During this period, when the beerhouse license was transferred to Arthur Bristow in March 1912, he became the sixth licensee in 10 years. The premises at that time comprised a taproom, parlour, cellar, kitchen, four bedrooms, garden and stabling for two horses. For this the tenant would be paying only £7 for the first year’s rent (£12 a year subsequently), £3 4s (£3.20) for rates and a beerhouse licence costing £5 5s 3d (£5.27).

It’s possible that financial difficulties caused landlord William Squelch to get into trouble on 19 November 1905. Sunday opening hours had been restricted since 1618 when alehouses had to close during morning worship. By 1905 pubs could not open before 12.30pm and then had to close in the afternoon. A way of getting round the limitations imposed on pubs and their customers by the Sunday licensing laws was to claim one was a bona fide traveller. The problem was that statutes never clarified who or what was a bona fide traveller – that task was left to the courts. It seemed the term might have applied to anyone who had travelled more than three miles by time they arrived at the pub, though some judges dismissed that interpretation. It also seemed to exclude those travelling specifically to have a drink, though other judges dismissed that interpretation too. The bona fide traveller became a source of mockery and satire.

In Mr Squelch’s case, PC Young had found 19 men drinking in his pub at 11.15am, according to a report of the magistrates’ hearing in the Bucks Free Press of 15 December 1905. Squelch said that they all were travellers. PC Young took names and addresses, and in his view, they all came from within ‘the three-mile radius from the Crooked Billett [sic]’.

Three witnesses, who had been drinking in the pub that morning, gave evidence on Squelch’s behalf, and all disagreed with PC Young’s calculations.

The bench, thinking there was doubt about the offence, dismissed it, though awarded costs of 15 shillings against Squelch. Finally, ‘they recommended that all publicans should make themselves acquainted with the three-mile radius.’ Squelch left the pub the following March, after just over two years as landlord.

The law changed in 1921 when the concept of the bona fide traveller was removed from statute, though calls to bring it back continued until restrictions on afternoon drinking were loosened in the 1980s.

Becomes a public house

In January 1960 the then beerhouse licensee Edwin Gerald Child applied for, and was awarded, a full publican’s licence for the Crooked Billet. The premises were now clearly moving upmarket and in October 1965 held the ‘Arthur Somerscales Memorial Exhibition of Paintings’. Somerscales, a native of Chile, had died on September 16.1965. He was an optician and seascape painter , who lived in Fennings, Flackwell Heath.

In 1971, licensee George Reed, aged 61, collapsed and died at the inn on Saturday January 31, he was succeeded by a Mr Jarrett. In November 1984 the Crooked Billet participated in a Children-in-Need fund-raising ‘roll out the barrel’ event by the local Venture Scouts. The pub donated the barrel and was the starting point for the team of 16 scouts, backed up by five others in a minibus, to roll the barrel all the way to the headquarters of Radio London. For 13 hours during the night the scouts braved the freezing cold and pouring rain and raised the magnificent sum of £1,200. Their reward was top billing in the BBC’s Friday evening TV show and singing ‘Roll Out The Barrel’ on the Radio London radio show.

1986 was a particularly noteworthy year for the Crooked Billet, when the Sheepridge Conservation Area was established and the licensee who is still the landlord forty years later was appointed.

Bill and Anita Green

That landlord was Bill Green, who with his wife Anita, is still operating the Crooked Billet today. Back in 1986 Bill was a successful businessman, running his own company with his business partner, when he decided on a complete change of career. He explained;

“After being in partnership in a metalwork/ducting business for some 15 years, I personally needed something different. Anita had worked for an insurance company in High Wycombe for around 16 years, somehow we felt that we were both in a rut and needed to try our hand at something else to change our lives. I was helping a friend behind the bar once a week at a pub in Downley, so we decided to change and take a pub. We applied to Courage’s in Reading and they asked us to look at a pub in Marlow, which we did. We first of all ‘did our homework’ and after two interviews we received a phone call to say that we had come second. We were both so disappointed.

Then we decided to try our luck with the brewery in Marlow, Wethered’s. They said for us to go and see the small pub in Sheepridge Lane, the Crooked Billet. There were 27 couples in line for it at the time. We then were asked by Wetthered’s to submit a business plan. First of all, Anita and I spoke about what sort of pub we would like to run. We both agreed that we wanted a place where any lady would come in on her own and not feel threatened. We submitted our business plan and we got it. We quickly lifted the trade because the following year the Globe Park business park in Marlow opened, and we became very busy.

The owners have changed around seven times since then. We have been here through nine UK Prime Ministers, two recessions, a smoking ban, and a pandemic. We have had, and still have, wonderful staff, bless them.

I think that we have achieved our main aim, a place where customers arrive as strangers and leave as friends.”

The Crooked Billet today

Inside, the Crooked Billet is intimate and cosy, with low wooden beams in the ceiling, tall people watch out! The really distinguishing feature is outside, a beautiful garden. It is not tucked away at the back of the pub building, as for most pubs, but ‘front and centre’, and particularly in the warmer months, an absolute picture. Bill is not just a keen gardener, but an assiduous one. Anything out of place in the garden is immediately rectified, even if Bill is busy serving customers!

When Bill and Anita took over the pub in 1986 the garden did not exist. In front of the building was just a grassy bank, with concrete steps leading up to the pub. One of Bill’s first tasks was to apply for planning permission to build a retaining wall and install new steps and hand-rails. Obtaining planning permission was not an easy task because of the Conservation Area status of Sheepridge, but Bill persevered. The retaining wall allowed the area at the front of the pub to be levelled out in order to create a garden where tables, benches and sunshades could be laid out. And Bill was able to develop his pride and joy – the garden. It is populated not just with colourful flowers, but also with tables, benches and parasols, and a seating area with excellent garden furniture.

Oh – I nearly forgot. The food – Anita’s cooking is fab-u-lous. On Sunday’s, you will love the Sunday roast. Any other day of the week you might want to try the seafood platter, and finish with a dessert whose name I can’t remember, but it is delicious, as long as you like cream.

Acknowledgement

My thanks to Andrew Mullis and his Blog ‘Chiltern Pubs’, chilternpubs.blogspot.com, which covers the history of pubs in High Wycombe and the surrounding area, for his assistance with the early history of the Crooked Billet.