Charles Payne

Charles George Payne, Rose & Crown Hotel, Market Place, Saffron Walden, Essex.

Brewing c.1887.

Premises destroyed by fire 1969.

From ESSEX BREWERS - The Malting and Hop Industries of the County by Ian P Peaty 1992 now out of print ISBN 978 1 873966 02 4

Earliest records indicate that the building was probably built in the late 16th Century, but may well have been in existence in the mid-1350s. The first recorded owner in 1623 was William Holgate, who also owned the adjacent "Angel" public house. In 1796 William Wiseman bought both the Angel and the Rose and Crown, his son was in malting but had to go into liquidation, the property then becoming into the ownership of the bankers who gave the mortgage, Messrs Gibson (also owners of the Anchor Brewery).

The Angel was demolished and a bank built on the site, now Barclays Bank. The Rose and Crown was a four storied building with twenty bedrooms and an ornate shell hood entrance c.1700. A covered archway on the left side led to a yard which had the "Rose Tap" situated on the left side, opposite and adjacent to the rear kitchens, smoke room and toilets, was a 3 quarter brewery. Charles George Payne purchased the premises from Mrs W. Carter in 1888. On the 14th July, 1887, George Whiffin and Sons, builders, gave an estimate for underpinning the brew house and smoking room for the sum of £28 12s 6d, so evidently brewing was taking place during the ownership of Mr W. C. Carter from at least 1882 and possibly much earlier. The house was the premier hostelry in the town from which coaches left for London every day at 6 am returning from The Saracen's Head, Aldgate by 8pm.

Mr Payne also acted as parcel agent to and from the Great Eastern Railway Station. He also supplied Allsopps, Bass and Worthington Burton Ales in casks and bottles, Guinness Double Stout and Younger's Strong Edinburgh Ale. The Rose and Crown was purchased by Trust Houses Ltd., in 1912 and continued to trade as a popular hotel until a disastrous fire on Boxing Day, 1969. Fire engines attended from Essex, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Suffolk, rescuing twelve hotel guests. Regrettably eleven residents lost their lives. The gutted hotel was eventually sold by Trust Houses Ltd. in 1972 to Boots the chemists who built a store on the site. On the front elevation a large oak "bunch of grapes", rescued from the fire, was refixed. This public house sign is believed to have been the only one on an Essex pub which was different from the house name. The origin of this sign dates back to very early times when all Inns and Alehouses used a pictorial sign of a bunch of grapes instead of lettering.