WHITE HART AND LAMB Pub of Ebony

DOVER KENT ARCHIVES

Page Updated:- Thursday, 13 February, 2025.

PUB LIST

PUBLIC HOUSES

Paul Skelton

Earliest 1828-

(Name from)

White Hart and Lamb

Latest 1970s+

Reading Street

Ebony

Tenterden

Above photo, circa 1900.

Above photo 1973.

Above photo 2022, kindly sent by Allan Ward.

Originally called the "White Hart" but gained its lamb some time before 1828, the building was rebuilt in 1900.

In 1869-70 the pub was part of a consortium who were advertising their goods of selling tea in response to grocers' selling beer and wine. (Click for further details.)

Allan Ward tells me that this pub was known locally as the "Sergeant Majors" and closed early in the mid 1970s and is situated opposite the Tenterden Garden Centre. Further information tells me that licensee William George Herridge was an ex-Regimental Sergeant known as Bill and was late of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, and it was probably this reason why the locals gave it the name "Sergeant Majors."

During Bill's 37-year tenancy the "White Hart and Lamb" became known as 'the pub with no beer' because from time to time he omitted to replenish his cellar. Cigarettes were scarce too; he stocked only a few packets for his best customers. Refusing to install a telephone, he relied on a GPO kiosk outside the pub for his spasmodic orders to the brewery and his calls to his 'bookie' for his daily half-crown 'flutter' on the horses. Eventually the GPO decided to remove the kiosk because it cost £300 (about £3000 today) a year to maintain and was used for only £15 (about £130 today) worth of calls; all as far as they could tell made by 'the Major'.

Thanet Times, Tuesday 21 March 1978. By Patricia Brookes.

My home was once a Public House.

RETIRED director of building development for the Hong Kong Government. Mr. Peter Shawe, found his talents invaluable when he and his wife, Norah, bought a dilapidated public house at Reading Street, near Tenterden to convert into a home.

It was while they went home on leave in the summer of 1970 that they decided to look around for a house to live in when Mr. Shawe retired.

After looking at a number which had either just been sold or were not suitable, they were given the particulars of the old "White Hart and Lamb," and decided to buy it.

The pub closed about two or three years previously, and was in a bad state of repair.

All the fittings, including the old beer pump handles, had been removed, but Mr. Shawe is now looking around for one to install in his own bar, which has been made out of the former public bar. The old snuggery has been transformed into an attractive kitchen.

Mr. and Mrs. Shawe have carried out nearly all the conversion work themselves, apart from the specialised work of installing central heating and re-wiring.

Those who can recall the days when the house was a pub will have difficulty today in recognising it. Mr. Shawe's work, which has taken him two years to complete, has been painstakingly thought out.

The former saloon bar has been turned into a dining room and the old fireplace has been ripped out and replaced, by Mr. Shawe, with an old-style one made of bricks from a wall which has been removed.

New floors.

The sitting room, which has had large French doors put in the outside wall was once the pantry and scullery, complete with a copper. Mr. and Mrs. Shawe had to lay new floors, as the two rooms were on different levels with steps leading to each.

The house is thought to be about 100 yeas old, but Mr. Shawe says he has been told by local people that there has been a public house on the site for at least 300 years.

This is borne out by the fact that outside are a number of old flagstones which Mr. Shawe thinks are the foundations or courtyard of a much older pub.

The house, which is now called the Old Inn, stands in about an acre of ground, complete, with a pond and a couple of tame ducks. In the grounds stands an attractive barn which is thought to be about 200 years old, and which was once used as a stable, probably to house horses while their owners were slaking their thirsts in the pub. When Mr. Shawe bought the house the barn was also very neglected, and he has spent many hours renovating it.

Old timbers.

Inside the barn are a fine collection of timbers, including those from old ships. When Mr. and Mrs. Shawe's daughter was married last year, the barn was used for the reception, and he hopes in the future to convert it into a music room where he can sit and play his electric organ.

There is also a well in the garden and the lawns, which were once feet-high grass and nettles, slope away to the the nearby fields and marshes dotted with sheep.

Mr and Mrs. Shawe have unspoilt views over the surrounding countryside, and their garden, which has been transformed from a complete wilderness, is quite a sun trap in the summer.

Mr. Shawe said that it was a challenge to take over the old pub, which had fallen into disrepair, but he now believed that it was a very attractive house in a beautiful spot.