Opening and closing dates

It is often very difficult to determine when a the premises where first used as a pub. In theory, all places selling alcohol should have registered with the Quarter Sessions (the precursors of County Councils); the Petty Sessions or the County Licensing Committee but it appears that this was not always done, and few of the records have survived.

Similarly, it has been difficult to give the date when the pub was closed unless it was one of about 100 which were closed under the 1904 Act between 1906 and 1938.

Dates given on this web site are normally the first and last recorded dates (unless the date is marked in the record as ‘exact’). Even then, dates might not be completely reliable.


There are many problems with being precise about dates:

● Pub names changed.
● Not all pubs were given names in the various records (for example, the census returns might just record ‘vendor of ale’ and not a pub name).
● The Census returns often record only the main occupation of the head of the occupants of a building, and selling ale might have been a secondary occupation.
● A pub might not have been open at the time a particular document was being compiled.
● Not all census returns and other records are complete or legible.
● Census returns did not include details of the occupation of inhabitants before 1841 and they are not available for 100 years after compilation (none are available after 1911). The most recent dates for many pub records appear to date to 1891 because the lists on the Ceredigion library web site were compiled before the 1901 and 1911 census returns became available.
● Trade directories did not include every licenced premises – probably only those who paid to be included.