About Us

 The Landlords 

Prior to 1801 the village pub in Conington, which may then have been near the church, was known simply as the “Swan”. It is interesting that the first three recorded “beer Retailers” were women, but since 1781, except for two years, the licence has been held by men. The longest of the thirty six recorded tenancies has been that of John Lawson. He was mentioned in the quarter Session Record in 1823 and if he is the same John Lawson recorded as co-landlord in Gardner’s Gazetteer of Cambridgeshire of 1851, he probably held the house for thirty years. His immediate predecessor, James Willows, was also at the pub for a long time from 1796 to 1822.

The Building

The present building is more recent than the name of the pub. The Enclosure Map of 1804 and the “one inch” O.S map of 1842 show no building on the present site. However, a Conington Hall Estate Map of 1864 clearly marks the “White Swan Inn” in its present position. The “Tudoresque” style in which the pub is built, with its red brickwork, hooded windows and diamond shaped window panes, was a fashionable style for estate buildings in the mid 19th century. Houses in the High Street in the same style, now demolished, apart from 1, bore the date 1849, so presumably the pub was built by the estate at about the same time. The pub was leased to a brewer in 1929 and sold by the estate in 1939, eventually ending up in the ownership of Greene King in 1942. The pub was Purchased by Colin Williams in 2013, and put under the care of The Conington Pub Co Ltd.

The principal activity of the Company has been to purchase and restore the White Swan Pub, Conington, Cambridgeshire, during the Great Dissolution of Public Houses in the 2000 and teens. It is a not-for-profit company keeping the White Swan in good repair and open to sell cask ales and affordable food for the benefit of the residents of Conington and surrounding villages.

The Beer

There is no record of a regular supplier of beer before 1929. In that year R.J and C.T Lindsell of Chatteris Brewery took the lease and supplied the house, they merged with Jenkins and Jones of Huntingdon and Marshall Bros (Huntingdon) Ltd in 1932 to form Huntingdon Breweries Ltd who bought the property in 1939. It passed in 1942 to Greene King who supplied it from their Panton Brewery in Cambridge. Greene King merged with Wells and Winch in 1961 and since 1965 the beer has come from the old Wells and Winch Brewery at Biggleswade. 

Information from: Quarter Sessions Records, Gardner’s Gazetteer of Cambridgeshire,
Kelly’s Directories of Cambridgeshire, The Electoral Roll , Register of Licensing.
The Royal Commission on Historical Monuments for West Cambridgeshire, Maps in Cambridgeshire Record Office. 

Thanks are due to Mr K.H. Page of Greene King Ltd
Research by C.E & S.P Howlett – April 1982 Research
Updated in September 2022 by Neil & Caroline Humphreys