Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser - Saturday 08 March 1958

DRINKS AFTER TIME AT STOKE ST. GREGORY. POLICE LOOKED THROUGH KEYHOLE AND CHINK IN CURTAIN. LANDLADY AND CUSTOMERS FINED. Drinks after permitted hours at the Rose and Crown Inn, Stoke St. Gregory, led to the wife of the licensee being fined £10, with costs, and two customers fined £1 each Taunton County Magistrates' Court on Monday. Police officers told the Bench what they had seen late at night through a keyhole and through a chink in a curtain over a glass door. Mrs. Pamela Jean Parker, the licensee's wife, was summoned for supplying John Ivan Keirle, wagon repairer, 4, Willey-road. Stoke St. Gregory, and for aiding and abetting Keirle and James Garland, farm worker, Collickshire. Stoke St. Gregory, to drink after hours. Keirle and Garland were summoned for drinking on the premises after hours.  At 10.40 p.m. on January 9th, P.S. Westcott and P.C. Lean saw five pedal-cycles leaning against the wall of the Rose and Crown and a car parked nearby. A light was switched on in the bar at 10.45 and P.S. Westcott heard glasses being clinked together. The side door and front door were both locked. The sergeant, however, could see quite a lot through a large keyhole of the front door, and P.C. Lean saw into the bar through a small chink in a curtain over a glass panel in the side door. Mrs. Parker, who was behind the counter, poured a drink into a glass and put it on the counter. Keirle took his hand out of his trousers pocket and put something on the counter. Mrs. Parker dropped something into a container under the counter, making a noise like the rattle of a coin. P.S. Westcott said ' You realise the time—two minutes to 11?" Mrs. Parker nodded her head up and down and her father-in-law said "It is private room; you cannot come in here." P.S. Westcott asked Keirle, who was sitting just inside the door. " Where's your drink?" He looked towards the television table and on the bottom shelf was a glass half full ot beer, which Keirle said was his. Keirle stated: " I was here as friend after a skittles match. We have been having a chat and eating chips and eggs. I had the drink served to me about two minutes to ten." Garland was seated near the fire with a glass containing light beer. He said " I am a friend here. I bougnt my drink long before time." Mr Ligertwood said that Mrs. Parker stated " I let them have it as friends." As friends, the two defendants had come to the house quite a few times after permitted hours to watch television, when she had given them a drink. Keirle went from the private room into the bar after 10 o'clock and she handed him two drinks to take to her mother-in-law and father-in-law in the living-room. Keirle paid her 2s 6d for his eggs and chips. In reply to Mr. Ligertwood. Mrs. Parker said she sold the drink to Garland and Keirle before closing time. She thought there was nothing wrong in allowing them to consume it in a private room after hours. Keirle said the only money transaction after 10 p.m. was for his eggs and chips. He thought that he was entitled to drink in a private room, after hours, liquor which he had bought before closing time. Garland also denied buying drink after hours. The Bench, presided over bv Mr. A. W Vivian Neal, found all the cases proved.