“I, Mary Ann Stratton of the Lytton Arms Inn, situate at Knebworth, in the parish of Knebworth, in the County of Hertford, Innkeeper, do HEREBY GIVE NOTICE that it is my intention to apply… for the REMOVAL of a LICENSE now in force in respect of the house and premises, situate in Knebworth aforesaid… for the sale of all intoxicating liquors to be drunk in the said house and premises… Given under my hand this 4th day of August, 1887”…
And who can blame her? Mrs Stratton had turned 70-years-old, had lost her husband Thomas, and been running The Lytton Arms most of her adult life. It was time for her to retire, and also time for the old pub to retire. What had for generations been The Lytton Arms became Inn Cottage, and a brand new Lytton Arms was built next door and leased by my great-great-grandfather that Christmas to Hawkes & Co., brewers out of Bishops Stortford.
It is that Lytton Arms that, this spring, 130 years later, begins a new chapter. The Knebworth House Education and Preservation Trust has entered a lease with Anglia Country Inns and a newly-renovated pub will re-open on 4th May for the Spring Bank Holiday weekend. Anglia Country Inns is a local family company, and it gives me special pleasure that that family is the Nye family – as Steve Nye was The Lytton Arms’ popular publican in the 1990s. Anglia Country Inns’ MD is Steve’s nephew James Nye, who had his first job scrubbing dishes in the kitchen of The Lytton Arms during his uncle’s tenure.
So Mrs Stratton can rest in peace – The Lytton Arms is in good hands and we’ll be raising a glass of intoxicating liquor to her and all The Lytton Arms publicans from across the centuries, as we welcome the new landlords to our much loved pub. May 4th be with you. The future is Nye.
Henry Lytton Cobbold
@HenryCobboldKH