In the 1860s the Tyser family took up residence in the Rising Sun. They described themselves as beer retailers and bakers, a very common combination. The Kelly directories mention James Tyser in 1862 and 1869, Joseph Tyser in\u00a0 <\/span>1874, 1878 and 1890, William Tyser in 1895 and finally from 1902 onwards until at least 1919 Susan Tyser. In the 1920s \u201cBaker White\u201d was in charge He may have been the last one to combine bakery with beer retailing. In 1929 William Oakley and his family moved in whilst Fred White remained as baker. In 1943, 14 years later Iris Oakley married Sid Puncher.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n A picture of the Rising Sun from the early fifties.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n That name, Sid Puncher will of course be familiar to many.\u00a0 <\/span>Originally he worked for his father\u2019s coal merchants business, occasionally making his cart available to people who were moving house. Upon his marriage to Iris he moved into the Rising Sun. When in 1957 on William Oakley\u2019s death the licence passed to Iris Sid started spending more and more time at the pub particularly helping out with the heavy work of handling the casks. For many years though he carried on doing other jobs such as gardening at the Manor of Groves and driving a school bus for handicapped children. Strange though it seems, Sid Puncher himself never held the licence. Until their retirement in 1987 the licence was held by Iris.<\/span><\/p>\n Iris and Sid in their glory days<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n By the early 1970s the Rising Sun was one of only a handful of pubs in East Herts and West Essex still serving real ale and the only one to serve it by gravity dispense. I myself can still remember seeing Sid Puncher bend down for every single pint! People travelled for miles to sample his beautifully kept best bitter. So it was no wonder that CAMRA, the campaign for real ale started its local branch in High Wych Village Hall directly opposite the Rising Sun. \u00a0<\/span>Chris Bruton, CAMRA\u2019s national chairman at the time came down for the occasion and Sid provided three firkins of ale which all went.<\/span><\/p>\n Sid\u2019s reputation as a character was well deserved. Steve Prior, who took over in 1987 tells me \u201c<\/span>Sid in later years never turned the outside lights of the pub on. That would only encourage passing trade as they would be people he didn\u2019t know. It was probably more to do with the electric bill as he was renowned for being careful\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n![\"hw55](\"http:\/\/vandebilt.co.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/hw55-rising-sun-small.jpg\")
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