I notice there are new people at what is now called the Sunny Sailor.

Their arrival heralds the latest chapter in a fascinating story that goes back a good 600 years.

It all began with a man called Thomas Wrench, who lived in an earlier house on the site, which included an integral kitchen, a yard, two barns and a shed.

We know that Thomas died in 1409 and it seems that the building fell into disrepair.

By 1586 it was owned by a glover called Richard Roberts, but was described at the time as; “old and unoccupied”.

Roberts sold the ruinous structure to fellow glover Edmund Hart.

It was then either demolished, or completely re-modelled into the building that is essentially still there today.

By 1605 the new home was in the procession of Alderman Thomas Welles, yet another glover, but was actually inhabited by his son, John.

Forward to 1674 and the premises became licensed and assumed the name of the ‘Angel’.

The first innkeeper that we know of was John Manser, who was there from around 1711 to 1739, when he handed over to Jeremiah Norton.

By 1769 the Braisted dynasty was in residence.

John Braisted, landlord, died in 1778 and his widow, Sarah, then duly took over.

A Mary Braisted is also mentioned, but by 1800 the family had gone.

In their stead came John Allen, who stayed for ten years.

Despite the succession of landlords, the actual ownership was (in 1813 at least) with a Lydia Hawkes.

On September 3 in that year, she sold the “messuage commonly known as the ‘Angel’, counting house, coal yard, other yards and stables, wharf and granary” to the wealthy miller, John Strutt.

There is a lovely engraving of Fullbridge, published in 1832, which just about shows the swinging sign of the Angel, part of the gable end and two latticed windows (the top one open).

In charge then would have been James Ward, publican from 1823 to 1833.

Sometime between 1833 and 1835 the inn was re-named the Welcome Sailor.

Charles Taverner was the first behind the bar of the Welcome, in residence from at least 1835.

His widow, Hannah, took over in 1845 and appears there in the 1851 census, along with 19-year-old daughter Eliza, 13-year-old granddaughter Charlotte, a shipwright (visitor) and five lodgers who were a gardener, sweep, servant and two basket-makers.

Hannah is still in post by the time of the 1871 census, but was succeeded in 1874 by James and Eliza Methan.

The Methans continued until 1888 and around that time the pub was purchased by Gray’s brewery.

Their landlords included David Chaney (1888-1889), Benjamin Turrell (1890-1893) and James Nicholson (1894-1898).

And so we arrive at the 20th century with Little Baddow-born John Ewers as “mine host”. Along with wife Myra and son Tom, the usual compliment of visitors, lodgers and servants continued to be a feature of the place. There then followed Charles Read (in 1906), Henry White (1908) and Alfred Martin Crabbe (1912).

With the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 there was a new face at the Welcome Sailor – Ernest Walter Bullingham. He ran the pub beyond the Armistice and into the 1920s (around 1925), only to be replaced by an old soldier – Major Richard John Northcott (definitely still there in 1933).

Thirty years later, in 1963, Grays closed the pub and sold the building to local gravel merchant Alan Brush, bringing to an apparent end all those years of serving ale.

Thankfully, however, the pub re-opened in 1984 as a free house and, in more recent years, was re-named again – this time the Sunny Sailor.

Despite that development, the old place retains many of the original features which even the clientele of the Angel would have known. Although they have been re-built at sometime, I particularly like the two groups of distinctive chimney stacks and the overall structure is now quite rightly recognised as Grade II listed.

Long may that tavern at the Fullbridge continue in its time honoured way, serving locals and visitors alike with the good ale that will make a climb up Market Hill into town just that bit more tolerable.