FIVE BELLS Pub of Hoo St Werburgh

DOVER KENT ARCHIVES

Page Updated:- Monday, 10 November, 2025.

PUB LIST

PUBLIC HOUSES

Paul Skelton

Earliest 1810-

Five Bells

Open 2020+

1 Stoke Road

Hoo St Werburgh

01634 252965

https://whatpub.com/five-bells

Above postcard, date unknown.

Above photo showing the Hoo Band 1912, kindly sent by Mark Hatcher.

Above postcard circa 1959, kindly sent by Rory Kehoe.

Above image from Google, October 2009.

Above photo February 2015, kindly sent by Roy Moore.

Above photo 2022.

Above sign, February 2015 by Roy Moore.

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.)

From the https://www.kentonline.co.uk By Nicola Jordan, 22 October 2022.

Landlady of the Five Bells pub in Hoo quits after seven months due to cost of living.

The landlady of a village pub is quitting the licensing business because of financial restraints and the decline in the number of customers.

Lynn Fisher is leaving for pastures new, just seven months after taking over the Five Bells in Hoo.

Lynn Fisher, landlady of the Five Bells is quitting pub trade.

The grandmother in her late 50s, said: "I have had enough. There has to be more to life than struggling to pay the bills and having to work the seven days a week."

Ms Fisher is relocating to Devon on Monday, November 7 – the day the new tenant is moving in.

She added that the rise in the cost of living has kept the influx of young families moving into the rapidly expanding village, away.

She said: "They cannot afford it. It is dead during the week. They work during the week, come home have tea and go to bed."

While business picked up at weekends, with Sunday roasts proving popular, Mrs Fisher said she relied on a few regulars to keep afloat.

But after five years in the trade she fears the disappearance of the local pub is looming fast.

She added: "The customers we do have are getting old and when they are gone they will not be replaced by younger people at the rate we are going.

"The pub used to be the hub of the community, but now there is not that connection."

From the Kentish Gazette, 5 January, 1810.

To Farmers, Butchers, Couchmastirs, Innkeepers, &c. Valuable Live and Dead Farming Stock, Implements of Husbandry, &c.

TO BE SOLD BY AUCTION, By C. LARKIN, ON the Premises, near the "Bells," at Hoo, on Wednesday, January 10, 1810, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, all the Extensive and Valuable Live and Dead FARMING STOCK, IMPLEMENTS OF HUSBANDRY, and a large quantity of useful TIMBER, belonging to the late Mr. William White, of Hoo, deceased,

By order of his Executor. — The Live Stock comprises some valuable team Horses, in high condition; excellent Heifers; and nearly three hundred capital bred Sheep, amongst which are upwards of three score of fine breeding Ewes, some valuable Lambs, &c. all perfectly clean, and in good condition.

The Dead Stock consists of a great many loads of very valuable Hay and Clover, finely harvested; Waggons, Tugs, Carts, Ploughs, Drill Ploughs, Harrows, Rolls, &c. with a quantity of very useful pieces of Oak and other Timber.

The whole forming a variety of singularly valuable Lots rarely offered for public sale, which will be more particularized in Catalogues, to be had six days previous to the Sale, at the "Bells," at Hoo; "Bull," Dartford; "Star," Maidstone; "Falcon," Gravesend; "King’s Head," Canterbury; "George," Sittingbourne; "Sun," "Mitre," and "Chest Arms," Chatham; "City Coffee house," Rochester; and "Angel," Strood.

Edward Loft, now living on the Premises will shew the Lots one week preceding the Sale. — Further particular may be known by applying to Mr. John Lockwood, Strood, or to the Auctioneer, Rochester.

The Public will be pleased to observe that on account of the great number of Lots, the Sale will commence precisely at Ten o'clock.

Kent Herald, 27 March 1845.

Inquest.

On the 19th inst., J. Hinde, Esq., held an inquest at the "Five Bells," Hoo, on Sarah Dutnall, a child almost five years old, daughter of a labourer. The deceased's clothes had accidentally caught fire on the morning before, by which she was so dreadfully burned that she died in about five hours.

Verdict, "Accidental Death."

LICENSEE LIST

MISKIN William 1841-45+ (listed as Butcher age 25 in 1841)