The Low Bridge Inn closure at Kentmere.

The Low Bridge Inn closure, Kentmere.

A popular and endurance testing Lakeland walk is The Kentmere Horseshoe. It starts at Kentmere village, taking in Yoke, Ill Bell, Froswick, Thornthwaite Crag(The Beacon), Mardale Ill Bell, Harter Fell, Kentmere Pike, and Shipman Knotts. It can be done the other way around, and makes a change to those who have walked it a number of times. You park up near the church or hall for a small fee, if early enough to get the limited parking places. If not, there is a field near Low Bridge in the village where parking is allowed on days named by notice, again for a minimal fee. This is accessed right at the bridge and on the opposite side of the road, near the Kentmere village side, is a house called Low Bridge.

Low Bridge, Kentmere, and the house of the same name.

What most walkers do not realise this house was The Low Bridge Inn. It should not come as a great surprise, when you think of it logically. It is a long valley, with habitation near the top, or head. It has a pass which accesses the Mardale valley, where a pub was also at the valley head, indeed it is difficult to think of a populated valley where there is not an inn to service the community and traveller.

 Despite having held a licence for over 300 years it shut in 1887. What happened to it? All local inns of the time would serve a community in more ways than just ale and/or a room for the night, and The Old Bridge Inn of Kentmere was no exception. 

On Tuesday 30th October 1838 the inn was the scene of a triple inquest following the deaths of a father and son, and another man, all three dying on the fells. https://scafellhike.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-tragic-deaths-of-thomas-gillespie_11.html
On 30th December 1847 it was the place of an inquest on the death by burning of six year old Elizabeth Hunter, of The Head, Kentmere. Her clothes had caught fire at 5pm on Tuesday 28th as she reached for a stick; her mother Mary (wife of William) was out feeding the family pig when the tragedy happened and the child died that night. The verdict was Accidental Death.

On 9th May 1850 it was the meeting place for the reading over and executing of the Award of the Commissioner for the Kentmere Common Fields Inclosure. Notice was given by the Kendal Land Surveyor, Mr. C. Webster. In September 1854 he also advertised the premise and Corn Mill for letting. It must have been a Mr. W. Philipson who became the tenant of the owner Miss. Susannah Sharp, as The Kendal Land Surveyor once again advertised the premise for letting, now in the possession of Mr. Philipson, for a decision on 17th December 1859.

The view back towards Staveley and the mouth of the remote Kentmere Valley.

The view to Kentmere from Garburn Pass to Troutbeck

Like many country inns, especially those remote ones, it was the venue for the annual sports day for the valley. Such a day was 29th June 1860 when it played host to the Kentmere Sports, of hound dog trailing, boys running, and this was followed by wrestling which consisted of 6 rounds.
Unfortunately a few can always spoil it for the many and the inn suffered from some disorder. On 31st May 1879 a James Gilpin was drunk and quarrelsome on the premises, refused to leave on request, and was then evicted. He returned with an axe, smashing into the door and broke a window with his fist. He was found guilty and fined. The landlord Thomas Hall, came in for some criticism from the Magistrates bench for not giving his evidence in a straightforward manner. As a landlord the two groups of people you do not want to fall out with are, the police and the magistrates, both having great sway on the issue of your licence to serve alcohol.

The 16^th April 1880 saw it return to the venue of an inquest, this time over the body of a 52-year-old quarryman called William Sharp, who lived at Kentmere flag quarry and was killed the previous day. He had been crushed by a two-ton piece of rock in the quarry that he and witness John Ridding, of The Nook, Kentmere were ‘bringing down’ from the roof. Despite the quarry using some inherently dangerous practices while blasting to bring down rock, and the manger not being aware of any inspection scheme by a government inspector, the verdict was only one of Accidental Death.

The 11^th October 1880 saw the premises once again return to disorder with John Airey and James Thompson Jackson being found to be drunk on licensed premises. Neither appeared at court and were found guilty on the evidence of Constable Johnston and fined 10s and 13s 6d respectively. Next at the petty sessions was Edward Sarginson, the landlord of the premises. He and his wife had been away that day and the premises had been left in the charge of a servant girl. However, he still had a vicarious liability and was fined 49s and his licence endorsed. Matters were not boding well and the cumulative effect of disorder was mounting.

Matters seemed to quieten but local people can have objections many years later, especially if part of a temperance movement and/or a church. There was also a Temperance Hotel in the village, located only on the other side of the narrow river and must have suffered, or been disturbed by any alcohol infused disorder, when miners, quarrymen and farmhands had just been paid.  Many incidents of local disorder and rowdiness would go unreported, being such a remote licensed premise with no immediate method of communication with the police.

The former Low Bridge Inn with the Temperance Hotel behind, as seen from Kentmere Church.

On 10th September 1887 at the adjourned Brewster's Sessions at Kendal Mr. F. W. Watson applied for a renewal of the licence in consequence of a change in the tenancy. He pointed out that there had been a licensed premise there for 300 years, the owner and tenant were both respectable people. He stated that there had been no complaint of disorder against the premise and it was a centre for tourists, anglers, and sportsmen alike. A Mr. Woolcott submitted a petition of objection, saying there were only 174 residents, of which 77 were children, and only 15 adult inhabitants did not sign the petition which objected to the renewal. It was further said that the licence was now unnecessary and the premise was a fruitless source of sin. After two hours deliberation the Magistrates Bench refused the application. 

It was then said that a strenuous appeal would be made against the refusal. This decision not to renew the licence had been based on the discretionary power of the licensing magistrates being as absolute in the renewal as it was in the granting of one. They had refused it not on the grounds of disorder, though those reasons were put forward, but on the grounds of: firstly the wants of the neighbourhood, secondly there no longer being a need for a licensed premise in the village of Kentmere, and thirdly the inability of the police to supervise such a remote inn. It was later to become known as the Sharp-v-Wakefield and others(Justices of Westmorland) case.

The matter was taken before the Justices at the court of Quarter Sessions on the grounds that under the Licensing Acts of 1828 (9 Geo. IV., c. 61), 1872, and 1874, the magistrates did not have jurisdiction to refuse a renewal on the grounds stated, but the decision was upheld. At the Queens Bench Division on Monday 30th April 1888 before Justice's Field and Wills the decision was again upheld following an earlier hearing. Justice Field said the matter relied upon the Act of 1828 and he could not find by either legislation or construction by judges on statutes(*Author - I take this to refer to case law), that anything had limited the wide discretion of the magistrates. Section 9 of the act said they had full power to decide, touching the granting, withholding, or transfer of any licence, and also to decide on the fitness of the person. So long as the power was not exercised corruptly or arbitrarily, the magistrates and Quarter Session Justices were correct and the appeal was dismissed - with costs. 

The implications of this decision for a small and isolated country inn were recognised as having a far wider impact across the area and nation as a whole. The local papers questioned what this might mean for other isolated inns at Ambleside, Bowness, Windermere, Grasmere, Langdale, Hawkshead, Troutbeck, etc.

Although the late tenant of the Low Bridge Inn had not been a member of the Westmorland Licensed Victuallers Association, such were the implications for their members that they decided to take the matter further, with the support of other like organisations around the country. Another Public House, The Swan Inn at Middleton, near Kirkby Lonsdale, was also seen to be under similar threat. It had opened to supply the workers needs, whilst the nearby railway was built and following the recent death of the tenant the ratepayers of the area were conducting a similar petition for closure, as the Kentmere residents had done.

On Saturday 15th December 1888, before The Master of the Rolls, and Justices Fry and Lopes, the Sharp-v-Wakefield and others case was heard by the Court of Appeal, but the rulings were unaltered. They decided again that so long as the power was exercised judicially then the power of the magistrates was absolute. They also agreed that the wants of the neighbourhood and the remoteness for police supervision were matters for the courts to take full account of. 

It was announced in April 1889 that the Licensed Victuallers decided to take the matter forward to the House of Lords, the highest court of the land, such was the importance of the decision on many rural communities. Hope was expressed since the Solicitor General was of the view that the magistrates did not have the discretion as exercised in the Low Bridge Inn case. The concern again was the loss of a livelihood for the licensee and the loss of an amenity to the locality. The Wasdale Head Hotel was one such premise quoted as at real risk by this decision.

The Kendal Otter Hounds met on Thursday 8th May 1890 at Stramongate Bridge. The River Kent was followed to its source, but without any success. At the conclusion many followers proceeded to the Low Bridge Inn, forgetting the circumstances of the famous licensing case. 

In March 1891 the matter was before The Lord Chancellor and Lords Bramwell, Herschell, Macnaghten, and Hannen, at the House of Lords, who reserved judgement. Finally, on the morning of Friday 20th they announced their decision. The appellant had based their appeal on the grounds that the original legislature had never intended to entrust the magistrates with a discretion so wide as to cause such injustice. The Lords again disagreed and upheld the decisions of the earlier courts.

So ended one of the oldest Liquor Licenses, The Low Bride Inn, in the County of Westmorland, whose memory would pass into relative obscurity. The premise in modern times is a house bearing the relic name of Low Bridge, perhaps in homage to its former purpose.

Thankfully it did not act with the impetus for the Temperance Movement for the closure of other mentioned remote inns and hotels, the Wasdale Head Hotel, perhaps being the most notable example. 

In a modern age, wouldn't it have been refreshing though, at the end of a long hot summer's walk around the Kentmere horseshoe, to have sank a pint of fine ale at the public house; or would that desire now impact too greatly on one of the quietest occupied rural valley communities of Lakeland? I think the jury will always be out on that one for many years to come.

Susannah Sharpe died aged 76 in the Kendal registration area, her death being announced across the nation in newspapers, including the 30th December 1995 edition of the Edinburgh Evening News. The papers referenced the famous licensing case that was lost in the remote valley and hamlet of Kentmere, which for a brief spell in time, occupied the minds of the nation in a debate on the closure of inns by magistrates. The Cumberland Pacquet and Ware's Whitehaven Advertiser said that the case had cost the Licensed Victualler's Association £7,000, but since their unsuccessful attempt to challenge the original decision there had been a number of cases where magistrates had decided on other closures but challenges had since been launched, and won, in the higher courts. That caveat that the magistrates had to act judicially provided an added check to ensure that any decision was fair with regard to the needs of all in the community, itself a check on the Temperance Movement. The Swan Inn at Middleton still provides for the community and tourists visiting the Kirkby Lonsdale area to this day.

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