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Picture source: David Fisher
The Queens Head was situated at 85 Brighton Road. This pub closed in 1951 and is now in residential use.
This pub, a Free House, selling ales, closed in 1949 and my parents bought it derelict. Our family of six moved in during May 1952 - I was only five months old. My mother cried, as it was such a mess. Under the floorboards there were thousands of bottle caps and broken white clay pipes. There had been a skittle alley here, remembered by some elderly neighbours, but I never saw it. There was no kitchen, just a scullery open to the back yard where there were three Victorian spider-infested brick-built toilets. One of these remained until 2000, but the others were used to store coal and logs. There was no bathroom. In the front, on the left hand side, there is a pit where the barrels used to be rolled down to our cellar. The pit was concreted over in 1965, but the cellar is still in use, complete with the brick shelf where the barrels sat. The roof was crumbling slate on chestnut rafters, which are still in situ, although the slates were replaced in 1986. The attic cannot be used as a room as the ceilings below still have these weak chestnut supports. There was also a cement sign above the doors, painted black, but originally reading Friary Holroyd Ales we believe. It was removed in 1965 with a massive effort, as my mother began her campaign to modernise the place, which destruction gives me pain to this day. At least all the flush hardboard interior doors and polystyrene tiles have been removed! Inside, all the downstairs rooms had worm-eaten wainscots, and almost all of these have since been removed. Two of the original simple pine fireplaces are still in place. The old pub windows and doors have been replaced several times, and originally there were two front doors, but one was bricked-in in the 1960s so that we could have a draught-free living room. Half way up the steep terraced garden stretching 200 feet up to Home Farm, an old stable was dismantled in the 1950s. It was only accessible by horses being brought through the shared access of the pub next door (The Three Crowns). Both pubs were adjoined, but The Queens Head was originally built freestanding with a peg-tiled roof and gable, and The Three Crowns was attached to it. Friary Meux believed they owned both pubs when they came to sell theirs in the 1970s, and my family had to employ lawyers to fight them even though we had deeds to prove ownership. I bought number 85 in 1986; it has been my home since 1952. It will probably not be modernised any further while I own it, but I can guess its next owners will have great plans for it!
LInda Stevens (January 2017)
As an amateur military historian particularly of my local Regiment , The Worcestershire Regiment, I have been researching George Job Grover. George was a regular in the regiment joining in 1901. He was awarded a Military Cross in 1915 & eventually became the Regimental Sergeant Major. His discharge papers of 1919 show his intended residence as the Queen's Head & a newspaper article of 1917 states his mother Elizabeth Grover was at this address. The 1921 census shows George as publican at this address & the 1939 Register shows he is still there. He died in September 1958 & is buried in Eshing Cemetry, Godalming.
Richard Hughes (March 2022)
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Other Photos
Date of photo: 1950s	Picture source: Linda Stevens