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The Potters Arms, formerly known as Sansuns, was an old homestead on the Coleshill boundary with Wycombe Heath, where the owner could graze any number of cattle and cut trees for building and firewood. The house belonged for many years to the Bovingdon family of Glory Farm, Penn. There was a pot kiln next to the house and their tenants included William Slade, potter, who died in 1763. The property was bought in 1782 by Benjamin Walker, who occupied the Queens Head on Weilden Street.2
The heirs of Benjamin Walker were awarded two small allotments on Winchmore Hill Common under the Amersham Enclosure Act of 1815. The licensing records show that the Potters Arms had a beerhouse licence from 1830, but successive tenants were probably selling ale much earlier than this. Emanuel Pratley, beer retailer and potter, was listed in the 1854 directory. In 1861, John Toovey was living at 'the beerhouse'. He was aged 31, described as a pot manufacturer, and employed eight men and four boys. By 1874, ownership of the Potters Arms had passed to Benjamin Brickwell of Amersham, surgeon. He leased the Potters Arms, in the occupation of Alfred Reading, beer retailer and potter, to Wheeler's Brewery of High Wycombe.3 In 1881, the tenant was John Saunders, aged 37, a publican and earthenware potter, employing one labourer and three boys. By 1887, Saunders had been succeeded by William Hobbs, whose family eventually purchased the freehold of the pub. William Hobbs was succeeded by Joseph Hobbs, who was the last potter to work at Winchmore Hill. His widow was still running the pub in 1920.