THE MAYBUSH
Alan Matheson in coalition with the History Group
Picture 2 – Maybush today – from the water
The Maybush, as it is now known, was originally a farmhouse, probably just 30ft x 14 ft with great thick walls according to Arnott[1]. Anyone standing in the road alongside the pub, is able to see a central section of wall built of little red bricks which suggest an origin around the middle of the 15th century. It is likely that this is one end of the rectangular structure described by Arnott. Once inside the building, close to the bar, it is easy to trace the thick side-walls’, even today after may extensions to the building.
Picture 3 – Maybush covered in snow – from Cliff Road
The Maybush was almost certainly an Inn when it was first licensed around 1745. For a century it had remained the ‘Cliff Inn’ but by 1844 it had mysteriously become known as ‘The Bush”, and then by stages the ‘The May Bush’ and ‘The Maybush’ as it is today.
The first recorded landlord was Daniel Button, in 1833, but he was already 62 years of age and may well have been in post for some years prior, possibly some decades, thus taking the history back into the 18th century.
He was followed in 1845 by Robert Salter whose two children were, according to Parish records, christened in Waldringfield All Saints in xxxx. The subsequent landlord, William Gooding (1848 – 1855) was described not only as an innkeeper but also as a coal merchant, perhaps providing the first recorded hint of commercial waterborne transport. (is this a place to raise the subject of the coalshed?)
The next tenants, George and Caroline Hunt, were to set a tenancy record which still stands: 48 continuous years between them. Early during their tenancy, in 1857, the normal function of the Bush Inn was set aside for an ‘Inquisition’ (Inquest) to be held before a ‘Most Respectable Jury’[2]. A warrant had been issued for the exhumation of the remains of one David Rush, labourer of the Parish, following the dissemination of a report that he had been poisoned by his wife. Examinations had been carried out both locally and at Guy’s Hospital in London; sealed glass specimen jars were presented in evidence, their contents being described in gory detail, and with some suspicion, by the press. A dramatic climax was anticipated but the verdict was ‘death by natural causes’.
George Hunt was the landlord from 1856 until his death in 1891; he was followed by his wife, Caroline, who continued in post for another thirteen years until 1904. The couple had eleven children over the course of 21 years.
The last twenty years of the nineteenth century were, according to Tye, probably the most exciting days for the Maybush [3]. Coproliters, cement workers and bargemen were its chief patrons and Caroline Hunt was the hostess. The pub was open all day and at night Mrs Hunt provided sleeping accommodation for twelve workers, some of whom travelled considerable distances over land and water to work in Waldringfield.. The busiest time of the day was said to be 11am when dusty-throated workmen would crowd into the tap-room where three dozen pints of ale would be waiting.. At weekends lively competitions of quoits or skittles would often end with fights in the backyard : Jack Stebbings , skipper of the barge Kingfisher and champion bruiser of Waldringfield was the usual winner.
Picture 9: Jimmy Quantrill (or JQ with salmon and Andrew Haigh’s dinghy)
Jimmy Quantrill took over from Mrs Hunt. He was an ex barge-skipper, also reputed to have pugilistic skills which enabled him to keep strict order at the Maybush. He would recount the experience of bargemen fighting for a cargo at the London dockside. Quantrill is a dynastic nautical name in Waldringfield as Jimmy’s son, xxxxxx, played a major founding role in the Waldringfield Sailing Club (check) and one of his grandsons, Roy, is a well known local sailor and one of the four Trustees of the Waldringfield Fairway Committee. Jimmy Quantrill’s daughter, Hilda, had six children whose names, also, are known for their nautical connections; Jim, George Turner and Barbara Kasnycka (nee Turner) and Margaret, Mike and John Nunn.
Picture: The Turners – newspaper article
Jimmy Quantrill left the Maybush after ten years to take over the Butt and Oyster at Pin Mill. He was succeeded at the Maybush by Walter Thompson who was there as tenant from 1916 until 1922. He was followed by George Thomas Turner – ‘Uncle George’ to all, but no relation to the afore-mentioned Turners. However this George Turner did arrive with his own nautical connections, having been a crewman on King George V’s record-breaking J-class yacht Britannia.
Picture 12 – J-class yacht Britannia.
Picture 13 – George Turner with boat on beach
George (Uncle, not the Fifth) retired to Deben House in Cliff Road where his wife, Grace, served cream teas on the lawn. George hired rowing boats from the beach and there is testimony to that activity in a sign which still hangs above the bar, not far from the aged Twizzler.
Picture 15 – George Turner’s sign in Maybush
Picture 14 – The Twizzler – might do well to get a new photo of Twizzler although the one we have includes George turner and Jimmy Quantrill and some explanatory text
Then came another Grace – Gracie Hill, with her husband, Albert. They ran the Maybush as tenants for 34 years from 1934 to 1968 during which time they became the stuff of legends.
Picture 34 – Albert and Gracie Hill
Picture 24 – missing picture of the Hills , Hills senior and a friend
Picture 24, brought back from Holland by Mike Nunn, shows Gracie and Albert together with his parents, Bob and Elizabeth and a lady who has not been identified. The picture was taken, probably in 1947, by Seam Kroes, a Dutch yacht builder from Kampen on the Isjlmeer, who, has been a regular visitor to Waldringfield, by boat of course, for over 60 years.
Those were the days when the pub was virtually a second sailing-club-house, most especially during the Easter week-end and Deben week. Sailing Club winter Committee meetings would be held in the tenants’ private living room. All to do with licencing and Sunday restrictions on the Sailing Club. The pub was also the social club for the ‘Arab quarter’ and for the touring caravans parked on the slopes above the pub – the post industrial days. Those were the days when Giles the famous cartoonist was a ‘regular’ at the bar.
Picture 26 – pile of pennies and Giles (I think – check) (see addendum)
Albert and Gracie Hill were the last of the non-catering landlords at the Maybush. They retired in 1968 to the Moorings on Cliff Road.
They were followed at the Maybush by Bob and Ron (Veronica)Dearing who were responsible for the introduction of, first, the toasted cheese or ham sandwich and, later, meals cooked in-house.
Peter and Marjorie Broughall took over in 1980 and continued the expansion of the Maybush kitchen. They introduced a loudspeaker system which was relayed outside and was known sometimes to disrupt the Saturday dinghy racing. The story goes that an announcement from the bar that ‘Number 42 – your meal is at the food counter’ caused the skipper of Dragonfly 42 to up his helm and recross the start line despite having just made a perfectly timed start to a race.
1996 was not the establishment’s finest but the history of the Maybush would not be complete without mention of it. A feud between the new landlord, Richard Farley, and some people of the village was reported in the press and Waldringfield was falsely labeled as an ‘evil village’
Picture 20 – ‘Evil village’ press cutting
Fortunately the episode was brief and in 1997 the current tenants took over and led the Maybush back to sunnier times with menus today which would have left the old guard ‘gobsmacked’. (?Editorial prerogative to change this to ‘amazed’)
I find myself picturing that solid little farmhouse presiding over a scene in which, for four hundred years, the only things to change were the tides, the skies and the seasons. Then, suddenly, there was industrialization – the recovery of coprolite, the manufacture of cement and the carrying of bulk cargo by barge. This was followed, almost immediately, by the internal combustion engine which not only powered the movement of goods but also brought undreamed-of mobility to an expanding population. The Maybush could hide no longer and the momentum remains unstoppable. The traditional pub is all but extinct and even many of its modern counterparts are falling by the wayside – but not this one – if the day ever dawns where there is only one pub left, I think I will know where to find it – The Maybush in Waldringfield, beside the River Deben.
I think this last paragraph should be edited to third person narrative for better reading but for now I have left it as it was presented by AM
Possible addendum from Peter K’s material could be edited in
Twizzer (Twizzzle) –( still in ceiling today I believe). On Xmas Eve in Maybush Pub it was usual for the locals to gather and enjoy a singsong and have a Buffet & free round of drinks provided by the Landlords (Albert Hill followed by the Dearings) and a Xmas Club raffle. The twizzer was used as a points scoring game with three goes each. George Turner’s party piece was, from standing, to kick it with his foot.
Maybush coin stack photo
This was very heavy and customers had to hold a surrounding blanket when it was knocked over. Not realising how heavy it was the four holders of the blanket lurched forward into a heap much to everyone’s amusement.
