HISTORY

The Live and Let Live is one of the oldest buildings on the common and dates from c1700. Formerly thatched and colour-washed, it is now tiled with the timber framing exposed. Samuel Harris was the tenant in 1842; in 1851 he was 40 years old and was described in the census as a labourer with two acres of land. He lived there with his wife and 5 children, and in a trade directory of the same year he was described as a cider retailer. He was still tenant when the premises were sold in 1853 being described as ‘all that cottage then used as a public house in the possession of Samuel Harris’. By 1859 he was also keeping a shop, and so subsequently did his widow and son. At the beginning of the next century Edmund Morgan was the publican.

The Live and Let Live was one of a number of lots that were offered for sale by auction on 13 June 1927. At this time the Pub was in the hands of the Holland family, but Mrs Anne Holland died in 1930 at the age of 64 and her son, H.R. Holland was the tenant when it was offered for sale in 1931.

Between the wars, when cars were few and far between, Bringsty Common and Bromyard Downs were favourite destinations for cyclists from Birmingham, and groups of up to 40 or 50 used to cycle down on a Sunday to picnic and visit the Live and Let Live.

From 1955 until 1991 the pub was run by Don and Mavis Griffiths; Don also working as a postman for the common. In 1991 he retired, the brewery having a rule that a tenant had to retire at the age of 65, and the pub was then sold. The new owner Shirley Gregory owned the pub from 1992 - 2002 and in 1996 tried unsuccessfully to sell the pub as a business. An application was made to turn the building into a private residence, but this was turned down. A local consortium then put together an offer to buy the premises, but this again came to nothing. A further application to change the pub into a private house was withdrawn in December 2001 and an offer for the pub was accepted by the owners. However the pub had now been closed for some 6 years when it was finally handed over in October 2002, but unfortunately the building had been allowed to deteriorate to such an extent that the new owner had to move into a static caravan on the site.

Extract taken from:
The Pubs of Bromyard, Ledbury & East Herefordshire by John Eisel and Ron Shoesmith. published by Logaston press