11 (7) Britton Street
New Brompton
Gillingham
Above photo, circa 1960, kindly sent by Samantha Bird. |
Above photo showing Dorothy and Horace Blesch, circa 1960, kindly sent
by Samantha Bird. |
Above photo showing Dorothy Blesch, circa 1960, kindly sent
by Samantha Bird. |
Above photo 1980s, from www.Flickr.com by Ben Levick. |
Above sign, October 1991.
With thanks from Brian Curtis
www.innsignsociety.com.
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Information below by Ben Levick
The "Plough" used to stand fully in Britton Street, but was bombed
during WW2, when it moved to the corner of Britton Street and the High
Street. The building it moved into had temporarily housed Gillingham
Library before the war, whilst the present Library was being built. It
remained there until the 1990s when it changed name and became "Vincents."
It closed in the 2000s and the flats were built in its place.
Above photo showing the original location.
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Local knowledge, further pictures, and licensee information would be
appreciated.
I will be adding the historical information when I find or are sent it,
but this project is a very big one, and I do not know when or where the
information will come from.
I am informed that the pub was bombed in 1941 which killed the licensee.
Samantha Bird tells me her Grandparents Horace Leslie and Dorothy
Patricia Blesch were licensees between 1959 and 1961, they also had a ginger
cat called Chatham and there was a men’s club behind the pub, but separate
from it called the Saracens she thinks.
South Eastern Gazette, Tuesday 31 May 1859.
CHATHAM AND GILLINGHAM, KENT.
Mr. J. T. Skinner,
HAS received instructions from the Proprietor to SELL by AUCTION, at the
"Sun Hotel," Chatham, on Wednesday, the 15th June, 1859, At five o'clock
in the evening, The following valuable FREEHOLD ESTATES, in seven lots,
vis.
Lot 3.— Two brick and tiled DWELLING-HOUSES, with outbuildings in
rear, and valuable piece of BUILDING LAND, at the north side
thereof, situate opposite the "Plough" public-house, Upper
Britton-street, New Brompton, Gillingham, Kent, and now in the
tenures of John Shorter and James Southgate, at weekly rentals
amounting to £12 11s. 4d. per annum (less rates and taxes).
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From the Southeastern Gazette, 26 June 1866.
Public-house Convictions.
At the Chatham Police Court, on Wednesday last, Deborah Cleave, landlady
of the “Plough” public-house, Gillingham, was charged with having her
house open for the sale of liquors at 12 o’clock at noon on Sunday. The
police found twelve persons in the parlour, all with liquors before
them, and about twenty persons in the garden. The magistrates fined the
defendant 40a, and the costs.
George Smith, landlord of the “Black Boy” public-house, High-street, was
also charged with a similar offence, and was fined £5 and costs, a
previous conviction having been proved.
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Above membership card for the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffalos. |
LICENSEE LIST
TANNER John 1828+

CONSTABLE David 1832+

PROUT Thomas 1858+
CLEAVE Deborah 1866+
BEALE Alfred James 1871-74+ (also Joiner age 54 in 1871 )
TURNER Thomas 1881+ (age 63 in 1881 )
JEAL Thomas 1891+ (age 57 in 1891 )
WELLS Joseph R 1903+

FLETCHER George 1913-30+
PETERS Frederick Alec 1938-41 dec'd
BLESCH Horace Leslie & Doroth Patricia 1956-61
https://pubwiki.co.uk/PloughInn.shtml
From the Pigot's Directory 1828-29
From the Pigot's Directory 1832-33-34
Census
From the Kelly's Directory 1903
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