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SWAN

Location:- High Street end of Kingston Passage



The Griffin, Swan and Bull were all close together in 1472, in the region at the High Street end of Kingston Passage, around York Buildings and Moon's Toy Store
Peter May, in his book "Newmarket 500 years ago says:
" John Kyrkeby paid the same amount, 2s, for 'certain lands' in 1428,that Roger Hollyngworth paid for them in 1472, by which time the 'certain lands' had become an alehouse called The Swan".

As far as can be shown there was an inn called the SWAN on the corner left corner of Kingston Passage (Lakeman's to the old 'uns amongst us) back as far as 1472 for sure, and another, The GRIFFIN set back somewhere where Moon's Toy Store is now. Along came James I who wanted a Newmarket base and took to staying at the GRIFFIN. Kings being what they were, it was not long before he purchased the Griffin from Leonard Beales for £400.
From 1609 to 1613 work was done to extend and improve the Inn; but in 1613 the rear section of the building collapsed with the King and his court inside.
Despite this James decided to maintain his presence in Newmarket and from 1st May 1614 until 30th September 1615 the much increased expenditure of £4,660 11s 9d was paid to re-build the palace, this time in brick & stone. Work continued in subsequent years and on 3rd October 1622 he purchased the SWAN INN next door, and also "The Bull" to further extended the size of his palace here in Newmarket.
The presence here of a "Bull" is yet another confusion since of course the current Bull is a distance away on the St Mary's side of the High Street. No pictures or drawings have been found


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1940s


2018

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© text Tony Pringle under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.