The Bluebell (formerly the Rose & Crown)

This is the inn in the centre of Hempstead, whose main claim to fame is as the birthplace of the highwayman Dick Turpin. The house opposite, known as Dick Turpin’s Cottage, also claims this distinction. What is certain, however, is that (1) in 1705, Dick Turpin’s father was the alehouse keeper, brewer and butcher in what was then known as the Bell; and (2) on 21 September 1705, Richard Turpin was baptised in St Andrew’s, Hempstead.

The inn has undergone a number of changes of name over the years. In 1841 it was recorded in the census as the ‘Crown’ and, for the next 140 years or so, this name seems to have been used interchangeably with the ‘Rose and Crown’. In the 1980s it went through a brief spell as ‘Turpin’s’ before being given its present name of the ‘Bluebell’.

Here are some pictures of the inn over the years.

Men outside the Crown

The Bluebell

Pub with coaches

The Crown

Rose & Crown

Pub seen from Church Hill

Schoolchildren at the bottom of Church Hill

The Rose and Crown from a postcard sent in 1972

We have reconstructed the names of the various innkeepers, partly directly from census and old Kelly’s Directories (see archive) and partly from an exercise carried out for the website LondonWiki. The latter has access to more sources than we do but some of these (dates shown below in square brackets) have not yet been verified by us.