Most bird-watchers are keen connoisseurs of ale-houses and those visiting Kilnsea and Spurn peninsula are well-served with licensed premises. The Crown and Anchor, Kilnsea, has some claim to be the heart of the village. To this may be added a recent addition, The Riverside Hotel. A mile or two to the north is Easington, with three public houses. However, in times past, the area was even better served, at least numerically, as this little article will demonstrate.

Spurn

Keepers of licensed premises often used to combine that business with another trade. This was especially true of out-of-the-way places, where trade was sporadic, as was the case at  Spurn. The publicans of Spurn in the 18th and 19th century were almost all people who also worked on the Point in some other capacity. Patrick Newmarch, who was the lighthouse-keeper from 1736  to 1767, was the first recorded licensee. Visiting ships will no doubt have furnished him with most of his custom. In his early years at Spurn, Newmarch probably lived a relatively uneventful life, but from c.1750 a dispute over ownership between the Constable family and the Angell family, who had for many years held a Crown grant of Spurn, combined with dissatisfaction with the condition and siting of the high and low lighthouses, brought drama and conflict to the peninsula. Newmarch inevitably became embroiled in the disputes, signing an affidavit ‘in liquor’ which he subsequently recanted.

The building of new lighthouses, to the designs of Smeaton, from 1767 to 1776, brought many strangers to Spurn. William Taylor, the contractor, leased a house which had been originally built for ship-wrecked seamen, and applied in his turn for a licence to sell liquor. In 1771 Angell’s agent, Worth, brought "a gang of unruly labourers to Spurn, [and] kept them well supplied with liquor". By this time Taylor’s rival licensee was the lighthouse-keeper, John Foster, with whom he was constantly at odds. On one occasion Foster was alleged to have thrown burning coals (no doubt those used to keep the light burning) over one of Taylor’s workmen. Workmen were very difficult to keep in such a remote place and the easy availability of liquor from two hostelries caused extra problems. Smeaton wrote in 1774, "I believe that after they have once got drunk at the lighthouse-keeper’s they seldom go to work any more". Taylor remained on Spurn, continuing to run a public house until at least 1780. Records show that between 1780 and 1788 there were no less than three licensed hostelries on Spurn, though their names, if they had any, are not recorded.

In the early 19th century another group of men came to Spurn, in their turn becoming involved in running licensed premises. A barracks and a battery had been built at Spurn as part of the defences of the Humber during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1810 the barracks were offered by Constable as a residence for the master of a life-boat which was to be established on Spurn. As an inducement he was offered in addition the management of a tavern to be built in part of the old barracks. Robert Richardson took up the position of coxswain and remained in post until 1841, retiring at the age of 55. The new pub was named the Life Boat Inn, a name which it retained until it closed over one hundred years later, though once or twice it is recorded as the Masons’ Arms. At first the crew lived at Kilnsea, but this was found to be impracticable and a row of houses were accordingly built on the Point in 1819, a little to the north of the present lighthouse.

Another pub, which was recorded on the Point from the 1820s to the 1840s was the Tiger. In 1835 a visitor to Spurn, George Head, called at an inn, where he found "the landlord, aguish and rheumatic, [and] though eatables were scarce, [he] had in store abundance of liquid refreshment". This description seems more likely to refer to the landlord of the Tiger (who a few years earlier had been described as being lame and infirm), than to Robert Richardson, the coxswain of a life boat. Richardson himself was replaced in 1841 by Joseph Davey, who lost no time in placing the following advertisement in the Hull Advertiser:"Joseph Davey begs to inform Masters of Vessels and others, that having been appointed Master of the Life-Boat at Spurn Point, he has entered upon the Public House lately occupied by Mr. Richardson, where he intends to keep a choice Stock of  Spirits, Wine, Ale, Bottled Porter, etc. all kinds of Groceries, Bread, first and seconds Flour, and Salt Provisions in Casks and by retail".

Under Davey’s management the Spurn station declined in efficiency, and he was replaced in 1843 by Robert Brown, whose freedom to trade was curtailed in 1848 by his being restricted to selling liquor only from within his premises rather than, as he had done before, on the beach and on board ships. He resigned and was succeeded as coxswain and inn-keeper by Michael Welbourn, who remained in post until his death in 1853.

In 1858 a writer, Walter White, visited Kilnsea and Spurn. This was at the time when a new row of cottages for the life boat crew was being built, on the site of what is now the car park. White observed that: "beyond them, towards the point, stands a public-house, in what seems a dangerous situation, close to the water. There was once a garden between it and the sea; now the spray dashes into the rear of the house; for the wall and one-half of the hindermost room have disappeared along with the garden, and the hostess contents herself with the rooms in front, fondly hoping they will last her time". This landlady was probably Mary Ann Tennison, who certainly ran the pub in 1861. She was the unmarried daughter of Edward Tennison, who had run a beer-house in Kilnsea, and the sister of Medforth Tennison who ran the Crown and Anchor. Family connections between the licensees of the various pubs is a constant pattern at Spurn and Kilnsea in the 18th and 19th centuries. When the new cottages were completed the Life Boat Inn was transferred to the end building of the old cottages, the old premises being too near the sea and often inundated with water.

In 1878 Richard Stead visited Spurn, asked for food and drink at the pub and was offered ham-rashers and some home-grown potatoes, which the landlord said he had grown in the sandy soil near the pub. They were offered for drinks "Ommost onny mottle thing" [almost any mortal thing], and learnt that the average sale per week during summer was from 60 to 100 gallons of draught beer, 40 dozen of bottled beer, 30 or 40 dozen of soda water, lemonade, &c, besides other things in no small quantities. This consumption was explained by the numerous visitors to Spurn by boat in the season. By this time (1878) the landlord was James Hopper, the son of Fewson Hopper, the coxswain. James apparently decided to remain at Spurn when his father was appointed keeper of Saltend Lighthouse in 1877. James Hopper was to remain as landlord of the Life Boat Inn for nearly forty years. He and his wife raised a large family there and provided a home for his sister, who was the postmistress and for a short time also the schoolmistress of the little school on the Point, which was established in 1891.

Kilnsea
The story of the ale-houses of Kilnsea is one of response to changing circumstances. In the 18th century the old village of Kilnsea stood near the cliff edge. It was quite a substantial settlement, with a stone-built church, a village green, several ponds, about 30 farmhouses and cottages, and a couple of ale-houses. As the sea took more land the village got closer to the cliff edge. In 1823 the only recorded ale-house was the Ship, with John Medforth as landlord. By the early 1840s much of the village had been lost to the sea, but two ale-houses remained, the Blue Bell (formerly the Ship) and a beer house, run by Edward Tennison. Both were still in the old village, which was described as consisting of "one or two farm-houses and a few hovels". Although the villagers were reluctant to move "till the ground was almost torn from under their very beds", they realised that something must be done. As a result of the enclosure of the open fields in 1843 land was released for building on the Humber side of the parish, and gradually people began to build new dwellings there. The Blue Bell was rebuilt on its present site at the cross-roads in 1847 (534 yards from the sea) and the Crown and Anchor was built about five years later.

When the Blue Bell was rebuilt, William Westerdale was the licensee. He was succeeded by his son who remained until the late 1860s. By the late 1870s another notable local family, the Clubleys, had taken on the public house. Francis Clubley was the licensee for about twenty years, and other members of the family are recorded at various times in the 20th century.

The first landlord of the Crown and Anchor was Medforth Tennison, whose father Edward had been the landlord of the earlier beer-house in the old village. In 1858 when Walter White visited the Crown and Anchor he commented on the expectations aroused by the host’s aristocratic name, but found "the bread poor; the cheese poorer; the beer poorest". White also noted that only six years after the Blue Bell had been built 43 yards had been lost to the sea. Medforth Tennison (who was obviously related to the former landlord of the Blue Bell, John Medforth), remained as landlord of the Crown for forty years, until the early 1890s. His sister, Mary Ann Tennison, ran the Life Boat Inn for a time in mid-century. When Medforth Tennison died he was succeeded by Keziah Hodgson, a widow, who remained until the First World War, she being succeeded by her son, another Medforth.

The First World War brought many strangers to Kilnsea. With an army camp at Godwin Battery and another at the Point, the Blue Bell and the Crown and Anchor had no shortage of customers. Of the two, the Blue Bell seems to have been the busier. When the Spurn railway was constructed around 1915, a short siding with a platform was constructed at the back of the pub, which must have encouraged its business as the railway was used by civilian as well as service personnel. From 1925 the pub ceased to be a free house when it was bought by Hull Brewery. By 1929 William Whiskers was the landlord of the Crown and ‘Meddy’ Hodgson had retired to Sweet Briar Cottage, Kilnsea

During the interwar years Godwin Battery remained operational, whilst at Spurn a peace time garrison of Royal Engineers were retained to maintain the sea defences. The Second World War brought many more people to the area and hence extra customers for the two pubs. In 1942 a road was constructed from the Blue Bell to Spurn, but it did not immediately displace the railway. The Blue Bell and the Crown shared the increased custom between them. After the war, the army gradually withdrew. By the 1950s there was no further need for the coastal artillery, and in 1959 the peninsula was sold to the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Trust for use as a nature reserve, and Godwin Battery became a caravan park. Hull Brewery sold the Blue Bell in 1957 to Edna Stanger and Mr. and Mrs. Billany, who ran it as a café. It changed hands several times thereafter, being at one time known as the Busy Bee café. A shop was later combined with the café business. When the café closed, the shop continued until 1991, when it was put up for sale.  It was then bought by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and is used for warden’s accommodation with an information centre and café on the ground floor.

The Crown continues to flourish. In 1951 the Robinson family bought the business, remaining there for over thirty years. Mrs. Mary (Ma) Robinson became celebrated as the oldest landlady in England, continuing (with her daughter Pat Stephenson) to run the pub until 1986, when she was well into her nineties. The Crown was then bought by the Wilkin family, and is now in the capable hands of Mrs Jean Bunker.