Sir Charles Napier (c1838)

The origins of this pub are obscure, but it seems to have been established in an old house on Brentwood High Street in about 1838. The pub was named after Sir Charles Napier, a then well known British naval officer, who had died in 1860.

The first known landloard is William Saunders from Ongar and his wife Jane, who managed it from about 1860 to about 1875. In 1878 the pub applied for a license to sell more than just beer, but it was refused after a petition against it was signed by a large number of important locals who clearly didn't want another noisy pub in their neighbourhood. James Sayer, who took over the pub in the 1870s, combined the business with organising cabs (horse-drawn taxis) for travelers, before he sadly killed himself in the building in 1882. After that it was owned by a baker, which was not uncommon since bakers could extract the spent yeast from beer tanks to use in bread making - although it was a practice more associated with 19th century baking when beers were more commonly brewed near or in pubs.

The last publican of this building seems to have been Frederick Walter Bowater, after whose ownership the building was pulled down and replaced by a new one with the same name in about 1930.