Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Berkhamsted High Street is well known for its many historic coaching inns and public houses.

The George is a late 18th-century coaching inn at the western end of the High Street, close to the corner of Park View Road. The bay window on the right side of the building was once a carriage entrance that led through to the back yard, but has since been altered. Given the date of the pub, it seems likely that it was named after King George III, and his image appears on the pub sign today.

In the 1850s, the George was bought by the local entrepreneur John Edward Lane senior (1808 –1889). Lane was well-known nationally as a horticulturalist, and the family firm John Lane Nurseries supplied plants to parks and gardens all over the country. He expanded his business interests into beer brewing.

The George is one of a chain of former John Lane pubs in Berkhamsted – the others are The Swan, The Greyhound in Dunstable The Crystal Palace and The Brownlow Arms. In the 1860s and 1870s it appears that the George was being run by a Belgian, Pierre Wille (1829 –1890), who lived at the George with his wife Sarah Ann and their children. Wille was also a gardener, and was probably employed by Lane.