COOPER'S ARMS Pubs of Rochester

DOVER KENT ARCHIVES

Sort file:- Rochester, February, 2024.

Page Updated:- Wednesday, 14 February, 2024.

PUB LIST

PUBLIC HOUSES

Paul Skelton

Earliest 1543

Cooper's Arms

Open 2020+

10 St Margaret's Street

Rochester

01634 404298

https://www.thecoopersarms.co.uk/

https://www.whatpub.com/coopers-arms

Above photo date unknown.

Above photo circa 1920s.

Above photo, 1950s, kindly sent by Andy Hoad.

Above photo date 1978, from www.Flickr.com by Ben Levick.

Above photo 1987.

Above photo September 1989, kindly sent by Philip Dymott.

Above photo 2015.

Above sign 1978.

Above photo, 1950s showing licensee Percy and Elsie Cornelius, kind sent by Andy Hoad.

Above card 1950s, kindly sent by Andy Hoad.

The Inn known as The Coopers Arms was built during the reign Of Richard I (1189 - 1199) in the year 1199.

When first built the house was part of The Priory of Saint Andrews. Saint Margaret's Street was then known as South Gate Borough.

The first recorded inhabitants of the house were the monks of St Andrews who for centuries were renown for the brewing of ales and the making of wines. The Archdeacon of St Andrews, under whose auspices the monks lived and worked, was a regular visitor to the house. Evidence suggests that during this period there were vast cooling cellars (long since bricked up) beneath the house, used for storing food, ale and wine, from which tunnels ran to the river.

In 1539 with the final dissolution of the monasteries the monks had all but abandoned the house and it had fallen into a state of dilapidation. In 1542 the house was purchased by one Jonathan Quigley, a farmer of the parish of St Margaret's, Rochester and extensive repairs and alterations were made to the property. In 1543 a license was granted and the house became a registered Inn. It was given the name of "The Coopers Tavern" and was named so in honour of the nearby cooperage who had, for a century or more, supplied casks to the Priory of St Andrews as well as the Townspeople. A sign was hung depicting the arms of the Coopers Company which had been incorporated in 1501 by Royal Charter granted to them by Henry VII (1485 - 1509) though there had for many centuries before an ancient order of Coopers.

In 1682 the Inn underwent further alterations, the thatch, wattle and daub was removed and replaced with tiles and a weatherboard facade.

Over the years the Inn has undergone many changes but still retains it's original charm and character. There is also a legend of a ghost, a member of the Brethren of Coopers, who was walled up and left to die for committing an unforgivable sin against the ancient order and appears once a year in November, in the dark of the night.

But ghost permitting the In still gives out that same glow of warmth and hospitality that it has done for centuries, so stay a while and reflect on those bygone days.

Kentish Weekly Post or Canterbury Journal 1 June 1827.

DIED.

Last week, at the "Cooper's Arms," St. Margaret's, Rochester, Mrs. Rance/Rauce.

Dover Chronicles 20 June 1846.

Love and Suicide.

Another inquest was holding on Thursday week, before the same Coroner, at the "Coopers Arms," St. Margaret's, on the body of Sarah Wootton, a girl little more than 17, who drowned herself from disappointed affection towards a young man.

Verdict:- Temporary insanity.

From the https://www.kentonline.co.uk By Nicola Jordan, 14 January 2017.

Annette Hamill, popular landlady at the Coopers Arms in Rochester, has died.

One of Medway’s best known pub landladies has died after a short illness. Annette Hamill, 72, became an institution in Rochester when she ran the "Coopers Arms" with her late husband Mike for 25 years.

Mrs Hamill met Mike, a sergeant major in the Army, when he was posted near her home in Stoke-on-Trent in the in the early 1980s.

When he retired from the service they came to Medway to take over the popular pub, in St Margaret’s Street, which is one of the oldest in Kent.

Annette Hamill.

Mrs Hamill trained as a nurse and worked in a hospital in the Midlands but was at her happiest behind the bar serving pints and chatting to her customers.

Steph Stephenson, 48, Annette’s son said, “She was a traditional landlady. She loved socialising and had many friends. “She was a very caring person and always willing to help others. If somebody did not have anywhere to go for Christmas dinner there was always a place at her home.”

The couple left the pub in 2007 and after moving to a cottage a few doors away, they became regulars, keeping in touch with their many friends. Mrs Hamill took great pride in her award-winning pub garden and she still took an interest in her eye-catching hanging baskets in her retirement.

She played an active part in the women’s branch of the LVA, known as the Medway Towns, Gillingham and District Women’s Auxilliary League of the Licensed Trade. The group of landladies remained good friends since it wound up five years ago. In its heyday it raised more than £20,000 for a wide range of mainly local charities.

Wendy Robinson, Karen Weobley, Pauline Marriott, Liz Shiers, Annette Hamill, Felicity Kissack and Helen Dodson at a meeting of the Medway Ladies Licensed Victuallers Association in Upchurch.

At their final meeting, she said: “It might be all glammed up behind the bar. But it is more or less a 24-hour job. You are never off duty. What the customer doesn’t see is the landlady in a pinny at 7 in the morning prepping up the food.”

John Brice, chairman of Medway LVA, said the couple played a major role in the association and raised huge amount of money for charity. He said: “They were larger than life characters and a big part of the pub community.

“They were old fashioned publicans who you don’t see that often now.” Mrs Hamill died at the Wisdom Hospice in Rochester on Sunday after being diagnosed with cancer in the summer.

Mr Stephenson, a sub-contractor, who lives in Rochester, said: “She was there for about a month but right until the end she was chatting to staff and had a sparkle in her eye.”

Her funeral takes place at St Margaret’s Church in St Margaret’s Street, Rochester, at noon on Monday, February 6, followed by interment at Medway Crematorium, Robin Hood Lane, Blue Bell Hill at 1pm. A wake will be held at the "Coopers Arms." All are welcome.

Her family requests no flowers but donations to the Wisdom Hospice via W Naylar and Son, Delce Road, Rochester.

LICENSEE LIST

RANCE Joseph/Josiah/Joshua 1824-32+