A WILDMAN at the Red, White & Blue

Brewing

Old Post Cards

In about 1911 someone obviously spent their spare time, probably on a bicycle, touring the pubs in the eastern half of Hertfordshire.  At each pub they collected a post card of the pub, or may have taken a picture themselves, and pasted them in an album. About 90 years later the album fell into the hands of a post card dealer who removed them and sold them one by one on ebay. Post cards of small village pubs are rare and those which were clearly identified fetched high prices but I was able to get 14 whose name or location was unclear. In 2004 I posted them on this site (Post Cards of Hertfordshire Pubs) and by 2007, with the help of others, I had succeeded in identifying every one, and often worked out the name of the publican as well.

The Red White and Blue at Collier's End
Is the publican in the picture Joseph Constable, William Wildman or Robert Champlain?

In the case of the Red White and Blue at Collier's End, part of the historic parish of Standon, there was a problem - as the village had three full public houses and two beer sellers. On the limited information then available to me I surmised that the Smith family were the hosts at the Red White and Blue. Much more information has become available since then and Clive recently informed me that his ancestor, William Smith, died at The Plough. A quick check of the 1911 census showed that a William Henry Wildman was the publican at the Red, White and Blue, and a widow, Sarah Louisa Smith was publican at The Plough.

In updating the page I have also expanded the table of Collier's End publicans to cover the period 1882 to 1926. What is interesting is that there was a high turnover of licencees. In a period of 44 years there were at least 9 different people running the Lambs and Flag, and possibly 10 different people at the Fox and Hounds.