Salmon Inn

The Salmon Inn c1915

The Three Salmons c1935 The  Post office was located in the left extension.

The Salmon Inn is situated in what used to be known as Beachley Green about one mile from the other Beachley settlement at the ferry. Beachley Green was a settlement of fishermen and their families who worked their stop boats and putcher ranks in Beachley Bay.

The inn was built in the early nineteenth century probably by the Saunders family who owned the land in 1815 and who were in 1843 recorded on the Tithe map. Neither the 1841 or 1851 census returns  show the house as an inn but in 1861 Thomas Saunders is listed as the publican. Over the following decades the house is variously an inn and a boarding house. In 1917 the people of Beachley were evicted and the pub closed. In 1927 after the failure of Shipyard No 2 the Three Salmons was bought by Mr Jesse Williams for £200 but after failing to secure a licence to reopen as a public house he sold the house to Mrs Emily May Edwards for £150. Mrs Edwards, the daughter of Chepstow builder and undertaker James James,  had lost her husband in the first world war and she and her daughter Joan made their home in the house and for the next fifteen years also ran the village post office from the premises.

Date Source Occupants
1815 Enc Awd Ann Saunders
1824 Bryant’s Map shows Salmon Inn
1841 Reece/Saunders no mention of an inn
1843 Tithe Thomas Saunders owner/occupier
1851 Census Reece/Saunders
1858 Slaters Mon Thomas Saunders no mention of an inn
1861 Census Thomas Saunders age 77 Innkeeper
1867 Morris Mrs Ellen Saunders
1870 Kelly Philip Saunders
1871 Census Philip Saunders carpenter
1875 Mercer & Co Philip Saunders
1876 Morris Philip Saunders
1879 Hillman Philip Saunders
1881 Census Philip Saunders age 50 carpenter
1882 Hillman Philip Saunders
1883 Hillman Philip Saunders
1888 Hillman Philip Saunders
1890 Hillman Philip Saunders
1891 Census Philip Saunders age 60 widower innkeeper
1892 Hillman Philip Saunders
1893 Hillman Philip Saunders
1901 Census George Saunders age 50 innkeeper
1906 Kelly Saunders, Mrs Minnie
1908 CWA Saunders, Mrs A
1910 CWA Saunders, Mrs A
1911 Census William Henry Boyle Carpenter & publican
1913 CWA H. Boyle
1914 Kelly Wm Henry Boyle
1932 Local intelligence Emily May Edwards becomes Beachley Post Office
1948 Local intelligence Emily May Edwards death
1948 Local intelligence May Joan Watson daughter of Emily May Edwards
1963 Local intelligence Les Johnson Builder
1963 Local intelligence ex PO now teashop
1970 Local intelligence Cecil Salmon