Embedded Files
These fragments of stoneware jar were found in King Alfred Terrace during the 2023 dig.
One fragment showed the name J. Rendle, Wine & Spirit Merchant, Winchester.
This inscription has enabled us to identify a little of James Rendle's story.
Local directories show that James Rendle took over the license of the Post Office Tavern, 3 Parchment Street (on the corner of St George's Street and Parchment Street) in 1859. The first license to this Winchester Brewery Company tavern had been issued in 1851.
Image (Gilbert Charles Rumbold (1896-1974) City of Winchester Trust)
On the 1861 and 1871 censuses, James is living at 4 Parchment Street with his wife Harriet and is shown as a Licensed Victualler / Publican.
Windowed in 1878, James remarried in February 1880 and is shown on the 1881 census at 3/4 Parchment Street with his wife Charlotte, who later gave birth to their daughter, Margaret, in June 1881. James died aged 49 in August of the same year.
Probate records from 1881 show that James left £916 12s. 10d. (the equivalent of around £100,000 today)
By the 1891 census, Charlotte (53) is shown as a servant in Lymington and her daughter (9) as a boarder in Owslebury. The Post Office Tavern was closed and demolished in the 1950s to allow for the widening of St. George's Street.
The jug is likely to be dated between 1859 and 1881. An intact James Rendle jug is viewable online in the Hampshire Cultural Trust collection.
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