At the Borough Quarter Sessions on 20th April 1761 the magistrates decided:
It is agreed that the sense of the members of this Corporation whose Names are hereunto subscribed that No Licence ought to be granted to any publick house within the Borough but those hereunder inscribed that is to say: (followed by the list below).
They were acting to make it clear that there would be no proliferation of licences, enough was enough. Such was their determination that they allowed two new licences the following year; they were persuaded in this course by a group consisting of the town’s three major brewers, Samuel Slocock, Francis Sheppard and John Townsend, it was Townsend who was to ‘name’ the new licences. Slocock and Townsend were notable members of the Corporation involved in making this decision – could the original edict have been in reaction to outside brewing interests looking for opportunities in the town? Sadly, there is no newspaper report giving more depth to the story and the Corporation minutes only ever record decisions, never the debate.
Walter Money, Newbury’s prolific historian, published his History of Newbury in 1887, it remains the most comprehensive history of the town’s history to that date. In the section on the 18th Century he provides a transcript of this list – with an error. He was human, occasional errors crept into his work and the omission of a single pub the Three Tuns was unlikely to create any problems. However, his book was used when the Listed Building Description for the Queens Hotel, formerly the Three Tuns, was written in the 1970s. Correctly believing that the Queens was operating under a different name in 1761, and knowing it had been the Three Tuns they got confused and wrote Mid C19 refronting of older inn, formerly “The Three Tuns” in the early C19 and “the Elephant and Castle” before that. The Elephant & Castle was one of many names of the pub next door (listed in 1761 as the Cock), demolished many years ago. A simple enough mistake. When considering a change of name, new owners read the Listed Building description and came up with The Elephant at the Market – Money’s transcription error had an unforeseen effect well over 100 years after his book was published.
The original may be viewed at the Royal Berkshire Archives in the Corporation Minute book ref: BRO:N/AC 1/1/2 p256-7.