Jolly Farmer

Last updated

Jolly Farmer
Jolly Farmer roundabout and Basing Stone - geograph.org.uk - 1469202.jpg
View of the pub from London Road
Surrey UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location within Surrey
General information
Type Public house
LocationJunction of A30 and A325
Bagshot Heath, Surrey
Coordinates 51°20′56″N0°42′48″W / 51.34889°N 0.71333°W / 51.34889; -0.71333
Construction startedc. 1690 (first building)
1879 (1879) (current building)
Closed1996 (1996)
Now the American Golf store

The Jolly Farmer, formerly the Golden Farmer, is a former pub and roundabout on the boundary between Camberley and Bagshot in Surrey, England. The pub derives its name from a gold-robbing farmer, William Davies (or Davis) who spent years plundering various sections of the country's main south-west turnpike road including this area before being hanged in 1689 at this location.

Contents

Junction

The junction was a fork with the London to Land's End turnpike road (now the A30 London Road), and the London to Portsmouth turnpike (now the A325 Portsmouth Road). [1] [2] The two main roads are mentioned in John Ogilby's Britannia, published in 1675, with the Land's End road described as "in general a very good Road with suitable Entertainment" and the Portsmouth Road as "A very good Road to Southampton, and thence to Salisbury indifferent" (the route to Southampton being roughly the A325 and part of what is now the A31). [3] Until the establishment of Camberley in 1860, it crossed remote unpopulated heathland. In the stagecoach era, it was busy with traffic, and notorious for the poor quality of road and proliferation of highwaymen. [4]

The junction has been an important landmark and mentioned in early motoring itineraries. [2] It was originally a simple fork in the road and was converted into the current roundabout layout in 1960. [5]

Basing Stone

The Basing Stone. The Basing Stone - geograph.org.uk - 1469180.jpg
The Basing Stone.

The junction is marked by the 'Basing Stone' or 'Basingstone'. The current stone replaces the original, lost during roadworks in the 1950s, and carries the inscription "Site of the Basing Stone and the Legend of the White Hart".

William Davies

The highwayman William Davies (also recorded as "Davis") was born in Wrexham, Wales, before moving to Sodbury, Gloucestershire where he married and had 18 children. [6] He targeted heaths across England from Putney near London to Cornwall for 40 years in the 17th century, [7] taking significant gold from his victims. He plied the uninhabited main road across Bagshot/Frimley Heath. His identity was discovered since he was a Sodbury farmer bearing 18 children with his wife who paid "any considerable sum in gold". [8] Davies was hung in chains on Bagshot Heath in December 1689. [7]

According to oral history Davies was hanged near the location of the pub, at the junction of London Road and Gibbett Lane. According to historian Jacqueline Simpson, this included speculation that he was hanged alive and starved to death, though this practice had been abolished by Elizabeth I a century earlier for being too barbaric. [9]

Pub

View of the former pub from the A30 eastbound The Jolly Farmer roundabout (geograph 3361878).jpg
View of the former pub from the A30 eastbound

The original building was to the north of the London Road, and operated from the late 17th century as the Golden Farmer. It appeared under that name on early Ordnance Survey maps in the 19th century. [10] The name "Golden Farmer" was originally associated with John Bennet, but became associated with Davies after being mentioned as such in Alexander Smith's The History of the Lives of the most Noted Highwaymen, published in 1714. [11]

The inn moved to its current location in the 1820s and the name was changed to the "Jolly Farmer" in 1823. [12] During the 19th century, the pub was a rendezvous point for hunting around Bagshot Heath. [13]

H. E. Malden wrote the Victoria County History in 1911, finding little of economic productivity or architecture in Bagshot to record other than its coaching inns, stating "Thirty coaches a day passed through, and there were many inns, since closed...The later history is full of the exploits of highwaymen, who found the wild country hereabouts specially favourable for their purposes". [14]

In 1996, the pub closed and became a Mongolian barbecue. [15] [16] After this also closed, Burger King offered to buy the building, but their offer was rejected by Surrey Heath council after parents were concerned children from the nearby secondary school would try to cross the junction to reach the premises. [17] Since 2003, the building has been used as an American Golf store. [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A30 road</span> Major road in England

The A30 is a major road in England, running 284 miles (457 km) WSW from London to Land's End.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M3 motorway (Great Britain)</span> Major motorway in England

The M3 is a motorway in England, from Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, to Eastleigh, Hampshire; a distance of approximately 59 miles (95 km). The route includes the Aldershot Urban Area, Basingstoke, Winchester, and Southampton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camberley</span> Town in Surrey, England

Camberley is a town in northwest Surrey, England, around 29 miles south-west of central London. It is in the Borough of Surrey Heath and is close to the county boundaries with Hampshire and Berkshire. Known originally as "Cambridge Town", it was assigned its current name by the General Post Office in 1877.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Highwayman</span> Archaic term for a mounted robber who steals from travelers

A highwayman was a robber who stole from travellers. This type of thief usually travelled and robbed by horse as compared to a footpad who travelled and robbed on foot; mounted highwaymen were widely considered to be socially superior to footpads. Such criminals operated until the mid- or late 19th century. Highwaywomen, such as Katherine Ferrers, were said to also exist, often dressing as men, especially in fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surrey Heath</span> Place in England

Surrey Heath is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England. Its council is based in Camberley. Much of the area is within the Metropolitan Green Belt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bagshot</span> Village and parish in Surrey, England

Bagshot is a large village in the Surrey Heath borough of Surrey, England, approximately 27 miles (43 km) southwest of central London. In the past, Bagshot served as an important staging post between London, Southampton and the West Country, evidenced by the original coaching inns still present in the village today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frimley</span> Town in Surrey, England

Frimley is a town in the Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England, approximately 30 mi (48 km) southwest of central London. The town is of Saxon origin, although it is not listed in Domesday Book of 1086.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frimley Green</span> Village in Surrey, England

Frimley Green is a large village and ward of 580 acres (2.3 km2) in the Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England, approximately 30 mi (48 km) southwest of central London. It is 1 mi (1.6 km) south of the town of Frimley.

Mytchett is a village in the Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England, approximately 30 mi (48 km) southwest of central London. It is 2 miles (3 km) to the east of Farnborough, the nearest town. Much of the village dates from the first half of the twentieth century. Mytchett had a population of 4,624 in the 2011 Census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lightwater</span> Village in Surrey, England

Lightwater is a village in the Surrey Heath district of Surrey, England, about 27 miles (43 km) southwest of central London. Immediately surrounding towns and villages include Bagshot, Deepcut, Windlesham, Camberley, and West End, Woking. It is bounded to the north-west by the M3 motorway and to the north-east by the "Lightwater Bypass" (A322). To the south-east it is bounded by the "Red Road" (B311), while to the south-west there are vehicle-testing tracks owned by the Ministry of Defence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deepcut</span> Village in Surrey, England

Deepcut is a village in the borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England, approximately 28 mi (45 km) southwest of central London. The nearest towns are Camberley, Surrey and Farnborough, Hampshire. Deepcut is named after the excavations required for the building of the Basingstoke Canal during the 1790s, although the village dates primarily from the early 20th century.

Frimley and Camberley was an urban district in Surrey, England from 1894 to 1974.

Chertsey sometimes seen as Surrey North Western, equally the North Western Division of Surrey was created as one of six county constituencies of Surrey for the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. The seat underwent two net reductions and variously included and excluded growing suburban settlements: Egham, Frimley, Weybridge, Walton-on-Thames and Woking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ascot–Ash Vale line</span> Railway line in southern England

The Ascot–Ash Vale line is an 11-mile-58-chain (18.9 km) railway line in Berkshire and Surrey, England. It runs from Ascot station, on the Waterloo–Reading line, to Ash Vale, on the Alton line. There are intermediate stations at Bagshot, Camberley and Frimley, all three of which are in the Borough of Surrey Heath.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woolmer</span> Hamlet in Hampshire, England

Woolmer is a place in Hampshire, England. Woolmer is situated between Liphook and Bordon. The surrounding Woolmer Forest, a Royal forest, is both a Special Area of Conservation and a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Bagshot Rural District was a rural district in the administrative county of Surrey, England from 1933 to 1974, covering an area in the north-west of the county.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sutton Common</span>

Sutton Common is the name of former common land and a district and neighbourhood located in Sutton, London. The area is mostly located within the London Borough of Sutton, with some of the streets to the north and west of Sutton Common Park adjoining Lower Morden and Morden within the London Borough of Merton. Much of the area is taken up by the large Kimpton Park commercial and industrial estate, adjoining the A217. It is served by Sutton Common railway station. The area to the south and east of Oldfields Road uses an SM1 postcode and the area to the north and west uses SM3.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camberley Obelisk</span> Tower

Camberley Obelisk is a brick tower at the top of a hill in Camberley, Surrey, England. The tower was built by John Norris (1721–1786) in about 1765–1770. The top section of the tower was destroyed by fire in the early 1880s. It is a Grade II listed building.

References

Notes

    Citations

    1. ↑ Bennett 2009, p. 2.
    2. 1 2 The Autocar: A Journal Published in the Interests of the Mechanically Propelled Road Carriage. Vol. 27. Iliffe, sons & Sturmey Limited. 1911. pp. 552, 594.
    3. ↑ "Ogilby Routes". Old Hampshire Mapped. University of Portsmouth. Retrieved 27 October 2019.
    4. ↑ Bennett 2009, pp. 1–2.
    5. ↑ "List of Roundabouts under construction". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) . 22 June 1960. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
    6. ↑ "A percular inscription - The Golden Farmer" . Wrexham Advertiser. 16 September 1882. p. 6. Retrieved 23 May 2015– via British Newspaper Archive.
    7. 1 2 Sharpe 2005, p. 22.
    8. ↑ History of the Lives and Actions of the World's Most Famous Highwaymen, Cpt. Charles Johnson, Edinburgh, 1814 , p. 28, at Google Books
    9. ↑ Simpson 2011, p. 114.
    10. ↑ "Golden Farmer" . London Daily News. 7 November 1899. p. 9. Retrieved 23 May 2015– via British Newspaper Archive.
    11. ↑ "William Davis (Biographical details)". British Museum. Retrieved 27 October 2019.
    12. ↑ Poulter 1969, pp. 16–17.
    13. ↑ "Hunting Appointments" . Hampshire Advertiser. 14 April 1894. Retrieved 2 June 2015– via British Newspaper Archive.
    14. ↑ 'Parishes: Windlesham' A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3, ed. H E Malden (London, 1911), pp. 376-378
    15. ↑ "Historic pub stands and delivers". Camberley News. No. 6923. 21 November 1996. p. 1.
    16. ↑ "Back In Time With A Historical Pub Crawl From Camberley To Bagshot". The Counties Network News. 15 October 2012. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
    17. ↑ "Safe solution agreed to Jolly Farmer roundabout planning controversy". 20 March 2003. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
    18. ↑ "Golf shop at Jolly Farmer site". Get Hampshire. 27 February 2003. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.

    Sources

    This page is based on this Wikipedia article
    Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
    Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.