The Walnut Tree

Over the years, where The Waterton Arms provided the hub of entertainment in the village of Deeping St James, so The Walnut Tree has provided a security blanket before the days of Universal Credit.

Built in the 1840s by Stapleton’s, John Cropper one of the first landlords set the tone as a lively and enterprising landlord, introducing the Walnut Tree Friendly Society. The Spalding Free Press of January 1854 commented ‘…many new members have entered during the past year and although the expense of the sick and deceased has been great, the funds at the bank have accumulated very satisfactorily. The principle on which this club is conducted is simple and easy, no member needs to spend more than he pleases besides his monthly contribution.’ The New Year’s Eve supper consisted of ‘good ole English fare’ plum puddings, beef and mutton, and the evening was rounded off with a rendition of the Walnut Tree Club Song which had been composed by a member in the previous year.

By the time John and his wife Elizabeth (née Freeman) left to set up a grocer’s shop in Horsegate, a butchery business had been added to the back of the pub. Stephen and Ann Skerritt moved from Deeping St Nicholas to the pub, Stephen having come originally from West Deeping, and his wife from Nottinghamshire. Stephen maintained his links with Deeping St Nicholas as he was a shepherd at Littleworth by day, helping his wife Ann as publican at night. The Friendly Society continued to prosper and Stephen and Ann held the annual meeting in May 1861 with entertainment from the Maxey Brass Band and a good substantial dinner.

Ann found the pub too much to run alone as it got busier and Stephen was reluctant to give up his shepherding and so Langtoft resident Sandal Wilson took over with his wife Ann (née Measures) who he had married at the Priory Church in 1858. They had two children, John and Emily, and the business continued to prosper as Sandal was able to buy some land and a cottage in Horsegate in 1875 when Mrs Norris took over.

It was Mrs Norris who presided when the Independent Order of Foresters held their anniversary. Members processed to the Priory Church where the Revd John George preached an appropriate sermon after which their members paraded through the town in their regalia, accompanied by the King’s Cliffe Brass Band. Mrs Norris provided an ‘excellent’ dinner and George Stapleton took the Chair. John Adams took over the pub briefly and was the victim of an opportunistic theft of three coins from his waistcoat pocket left hanging in the house.

Benjamin and Thomas Robinson of Deeping St James had sold the coins to Market Deeping hairdresser, Mr Clifton and Mr Smith, a silversmith of the town. Mr Clifton had become suspicious and informed Sgt Crampton. In spite of their not guilty pleas the teenagers were sentenced to a month’s imprisonment with hard labour.

It was landlord Mr Savidge who provided the meal for the 1877 anniversary of the Order of Foresters’ following a rousing sermon at the Priory where the Revd John George had impressed upon members the dangers of connecting themselves with the Labour unions which had been in the village a few days previously. He said that they were ‘bellowing forth a tissue of lies and striving to create discontent between masters and men instead of brotherly love’. After the service there was a procession headed by the Peterborough Great Northern Locomotive Band. William and Ann Stokes then took the pub, Ann as the publican, William remaining as a domestic groom. In 1890 when the pub was let again there was a blacksmith’s shop at the back and this attracted blacksmith Edley Brown and his wife Edna. Edley was charged with drunkenness in December 1892 and in the following year the couple left for Richmond, California.

For the next fourteen years Baleston-born Alfred Bowler and his wife Ann were at the helm – they had one daughter, Alice. Alfred had been a brewer’s Traveller. The couple bred greyhounds, advertising five for sale in 1899. They lived in some Victorian style with a piano, a dining suite with leather chairs, inlaid occasional tables, brass-mounted and iron bedsteads, marble washstands, Duchesse dressing tables and carpets and hearth rugs, dinner and tea services. In 1907 all of the contents were auctioned as the family moved to Bourne, and shortly after the pub itself was auctioned under the terms of Harvey Stapleton’s Will but it did not reach its reserve and so was withdrawn, from sale to be sold privately to William Soames of the Red Lion, Market Deeping.

Landlord of the Chestnut Horse, Deeping St James, John Coaten took over as licensee at this point and the family were at the helm here for the next 20 years. John and Jane (née Wiggington) provided a potato supper for 160 (!) in 1908. Sadly John died in 1910 leaving Jane and her daughter Margaret in charge. At the meeting of the Walnut Tree Sick & Dividing Club in December that year members were paid a dividend of 19 shillings and 10 pence and were provided with an excellent supper. In the following year Jane suffered a severe injury to her shoulder when, on returning from Spalding Market, she was run into by a horse and dray driven by Francis Gray of Easton, near to Mr F. Allen’s of Horsegate. Gray was arrested for being drunk in charge of the horse and dray.

After her marriage to Harry Bush from Stickford in 1912, Margaret (Mag) continued to run the pub with her mother with Harry as the landlord. In 1913 he was charged with allowing drunkenness on the premises after John Hunt was seen by Inspector Deacon to leave the pub in a very drunken condition. Harry and other witnesses claimed that Hunt had appeared sober when he left the pub and as there was some doubt the jury found in favour of Bush. He was in court again in 1915, alleging theft of one shilling and three pence by Harry Sanderson of Deeping St James. In spite of the money being paid to the defendant prior to the hearing, the case was proved and a fine of 50 shillings was imposed. Later that year Harry was called up for service in the First World War shortly after Jane had died, and so the licence was transferred to Mag. Joyfully Harry returned to Mag and their two sons, John (aged 8) and Percy (5) in 1921.

In December Harry was back in court, this time for letting his dog stray in Deeping St James, and was fined five shillings. More seriously he was charged for not having a gang master’s licence and employing women without a licence – he had been supplying farmers with a number of women to do seasonal work on the land. He was fined five shillings for each summons.

In 1929 the couple moved to Bridge Street. Their son John, a lorry driver, died at the age of 57; he had been a keen sportsman and expert mechanic.

George and Peggy Soames took over the pub from the Bushes. George was a carpenter and builder and didn’t stay long, moving to Bridge Street in 1932 where he was briefly famous in the press for digging a root of Arran banner potatoes which was 6 ft 4 ins long! George and Ethel Taylor took over briefly in 1933 but it was the Wilson family in charge for the next 14 years.

As well as being licensee of the pub, George Wilson was a representative of the Derbyshire Railway Carriage and Wagon Builders of Chesterfield. He had been born in Hanford, Staffordshire, in 1888, to George and Dinah. Originally his father was a traffic manager on the railway but later a licensee of the Bull’s Head in Hanford. George Jnr became a railway wagon repairer and on the 1911 census was living with his first wife Ethel. As a widower he married teacher Kathleen (née Swift) in Peterborough in 1924. George had served in the War in the Staffordshire Regiment and prior to that had played football for the Stoke on Trent Railway Football Club and became the manager of Deeping United. The Club was very popular in the 1920s and 30s playing on the field behind the Rundle, 100 Bridge St (now Busy Bees nursery) wearing a distinctive strip of black and gold stripes. One ex-member recalls the days when they used the back room at the pub as a changing room, washing in Mrs Wilson’s bathroom and often leaving it in a muddy condition.

George died in Peterborough Hospital in 1946 leaving Kathleen (Kitty) to run the pub with the help of the young men of the football team. A couple of years later she auctioned some of her furniture and moved to Werrington, taking up teaching again with a post in Market Deeping.

Alfred Kendall and his wife were licensees at the Walnut Tree before moving to The Bell in Deeping St James. From 1954 Albert Bartle was the host at the pub; originally a pump man for the Anglo-Uranium Company at Cawton, he served in the First World War as a sergeant in the Grenadier Guards. Deemed to be a crack shot and keen sportsman, he became a fitter at Perkins before taking on the pub. Sadly he died at the age of just 38 in 1957, leaving £1,477.

Peter and Sheila Roffe came to the Walnut Tree in 1964 from the White Horse; Pete was secretary of the Bourne & District Victuallers Association. They left and moved to a house in Park Road.

The 70s were heralded with a pub refit by John Smith’s Tadcaster brewery having been warned by the Bourne Justices that the toilets and hand washing facilities in the kitchen required improvement. It is recorded that in March 1977 the Raving Nutters Football Club of the Walnut Tree journeyed to Stamford to meet The Vaults at Empingham Road Football Ground, winning 10 nil, goal scorers being B. Griffiths, M. Lake, N. Pocklington and D. Wilson. That year the licence was transferred from J. Downs to Brian and Jane Lake who were known for having live music at weekends. 1n 1979 their son Peter, apprentice engineer at Hotpoint, was tragically killed in a road accident just as his parents were preparing to move from Holland Close to Spalding. He left brothers, John and Martin and sisters Elizabeth and Jenny.