The Cyder House, 1907
The Cyder House started life as a cider press in Hall Place (now Aldro school) and the offices of the house which contained the press became The Old Cyder House Inn. In 1906 William Edgar Horne built a new mansion on the site, keeping the old stables of 1743 but not wanting a drinking house on his premises. A condition of the sale was that the village should continue to have a pub supplying beer and cider and so he built a new Cyder House a few hundred yards away up Peper Harow Lane.
A certain John Mandeville was given as a shopkeeper at Shackleford in Kelly’s Directory 1867. In 1874 he was described as a beer retailer and shopkeeper while by 1882 John Theophilus Mandeville was given as the occupant of the Old Cyder House.
The 1899 Directory lists Arthur Edwards at ‘The Cyder House’ and the 1904 Return of Licensed Houses in Surrey stated that ‘The Old Cyder House’ was a fully licensed free house and had been licensed since before 1869. The owner was William E. Horne and the licensee and occupant was Mrs. Louisa Edwards. There was sleeping accommodation for one and stabling. The Directory listed the Cyder House again in 1907 with Mrs. Edwards still in occupation. She remained there at least until 1919 when she was succeeded by William Thomas Madden who was there from about 1922 to about 1938. So we may conclude that the present Cyder House was probably constructed between 1904 and 1907 when the Frith photograph above was taken with a Savill’s Brewery delivery wagon outside and Louisa Edwards’ name over the door.
The Cyder House was acquired and run by Hodgsons Kingston Brewery until Hodgsons was taken over in 1943 by Courage who kept it until 1978 when it became a free house. The building was refurbished in 1974 and again more extensively in 1987 (by Howard & Co. of Guildford). In 1994 the then landlord Ted Gibbs was given permission to extend the house and enlarge the parking area, sacrificing most of the lawn at the back to do so.
In 1992 Ted and his brother Julian started the Shackleford Brewery Company in the room next to the car park, producing ales such as Piston Broke and Old Shackle, but this did not last long and the brewery reverted to a games room.
The pub was sold to Badger Brewery in the late Nineties and became a managed house.
The best person to describe the pub as it was before the alterations is probably Tony Stillwell, who was brought up in Shackleford and now lives in Hurtmore.
Above: The Cyder House in 1907 with a brewery wagon from Savill’s of Shalford outside.