ABSTRACT
Business and police records—interviews with aspiring tenants—illuminate recruitment procedures and what traits brewers valued most. Other primary sources—licensing records, trade newspapers, evidence of parliamentary commissions, obituaries and oral histories—yield further insights into the unexplored world of licensed victualling. Drawing on anecdotal evidence, Paul Jennings contends that publicans entered the trade first as beerhouse keepers, “the main route into the fully-licensed sector,” followed by servants, notably waiters and general house servants, keepers of chandlers’ shops, labourers, artisans and finally sportsmen. Quantifying the proportion of individuals who became publicans reveals something quite different. Inheritance, trade connections or sport played direct roles in acquiring a pub tenancy for 40% of publicans.
