The Queen of the Castle, actually.
Some of you may have met Delilah before. She first featured in a post about some Andalucian ales, before making return appearances in one on the lost bars in Jimena de la Frontera as well as in this one from last year.
Well, she's back again. Food Providers (FP) 1 and 2 disappeared to some other part of the Mediterranean so Mrs Bygone Boozer and I returned to the roles of FP3 and FP4 for a brief while. It was time, once again, to pedal on some different roads, drink some different beer and enjoy a little Spanish sunshine.
As intimated above, cat feeding was interspersed with a bit of pedalling. Early morning starts seemed to be the order of the day so that we could be back for the 3:30pm feed. This wasn't really tying as we'd aim to be back by about 2:00 because climbing back up into the village in the middle of the afternoon, in the full glare of the sun, with temperatures in the thirties, isn't fun.
We'd try to get to our planned destination by around 11:00, have some coffee and crepes, or similar, and then head back to Delilah's castle on the hill.
There is another problem associated with our feline's fortress being at the top of a hill. Getting back there after an evening's consumption of Cruzcampo's Gran Reserva takes a bit of doing too.
So, with all this claptrap about castles it's probably no surprise to learn that another castle is about to feature. Having been away from a lot of my usual resources I've dived into Charrington's archives for a couple of pictures of this one. I've never been in it, passed it or seen it but it did used to stand close to, and presumably took its name from, some of my family's former property.
In 1851 The Castle Inn on Church Road in Tottenham was recorded in the census with a James Chalkley being the landlord.
The pub's name was most likely taken from Bruce Castle which was just a couple of hundred yards away to the west, along Church Road. Originally owned by the Bruce family, who once had around a third of the manor of Tottenham, it had to be surrendered in 1306 when Robert the Bruce became King of Scotland. As he is my n-times great uncle, descended as I am from his sister Isobel (assuming, that is, that there was no adultery in the female line over thirty or so generations) I, along with several million other folk, can classify it as being some of my family's former lands.
Despite originally being described as standing on Church Road the pub's location seems to have had a number of names. In 1861 it was at 1 Castle Place and being run by James Hookham...
...just as it was in 1871 when we find Augustus Taylor in residence.
Augustus provides some continuity of landlord, as he was still there in 1881...
...but the pub is back on Church Road. Number 1 Church Road, to be precise.
A decade later and Augustus has moved, and so has the pub. It's once more at 1 Castle Place, with Walter Lonsdale now pouring the pints.
Another ten years on brings another new landlord and another new address. Henry Sheldrake is at 42 Church Road.
The address may stay constant from now, but the landlord doesn't. In 1911 William and Clara Nixon are running the show.
William died in 1913, the year that this Ordnance Survey map was published...
...showing the Castle standing on the corner of Church Road and the unnamed Love Lane. There's been a bit more name-changing recently, for Love lane is now called Brereton Road.
Here is a photograph of The Castle, on the corner of the unnamed Love Lane, selling West's ales.
West's Brewery in Hackney was taken over by Hoare and Co. in November 1929 so the photograph was presumably taken before then. Hoare and Co. were themselves taken over by Charrington's four years later and here it is displaying its new livery – along with the name of Love Lane. Note the Toby Jug emblem which was acquired with the acquisition of Hoare's. Of course it's still in use today with the Toby Inn brand.
One copy of the above image in the surveyors' archives has a date of 1919 written on it. Looking at the architectural style, and the two colours of bricks in the building, I can't help but wonder if this was the date when the building was refronted. More notes on the same image inform us that alterations were made to the bars in 1936 at a cost of £653.
If its address and landlords in the early days were somewhat variable, stability was the norm in its final years.
Electoral registers show us that Charles Finch was at 42 Church Road from at least 1932 until 1957, but Charrington's records suggest that whilst he and his wife my well still have been living there, he ceased to be the licensee in 1955.
In May 1965, the freehold was sold to the London Borough of Harringay for £12,500 and The Castle's licence was suspended. I'm presuming it was acquired for the redevelopment of the area. The corner of Church Road and Love Lane/ Brereton Road now looks like this.
The Ordnance Survey map extract is copyright and has been reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland under the terms of this CC BY licence.
The Charrington surveyors' images are reused under this licence.
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