Hook Green

Meopham

Above photo, 1928, kindly sent by Jason Kemsley. Showing Caroline Wooding standing in the doorway.

Above photo, date unknown, kindly sent by Michael Norman.

Above drawing pre 1924, by Mr. Perry Windo, headmaster of Meopham School. (1902-34.)

Above photo from the book, 1975, Pubs of Meopham by Jim Carley.

Above postcard, date unknown.

Above photo from the book, 1975, Pubs of Meopham by Jim Carley. Showing Mr. & Mrs. Walters.

Above photo left from the book, 1975, Pubs of Meopham by Jim Carley. Above sign right, August 1986. With thanks from Brian Curtis www.innsignsociety.com.

“The Fox and Hounds”, first mentioned in 1836, with the present building built in 1924, now called “Bartellas”, and is a licensed restaurant.

Its well was repaired by the Parish Council for 30s in 1897 and in 1917 was filled in and bricked up.

After William Wooding died in 1928, the brewery took back the premises and renovated it to what it looks like today.

The following has been taken from the 1975 book by Jim Carly.

The present building was constructed about 1924, on the site of a much older weatherboard beer-house. The earliest reference so far traced is on the rate book of 1836 which shows the beer-house in the occupation of George French. The property had one of the two wells known to be located at Hook Green, probably at the rear of the premises near the old forge. The original building was three stories high.

In 1924 work was put in hand to rebuild it in the form we see it to-day. One of the workmen on the job was Mr. Porter, a brother of Mrs. Mabel Roots. He emigrated to Australia many years ago, but during a recent trip to England, he was able to contribute some reminiscences of the work. Not all of the old building was demolished, and as part of the work they had to cut out toothing to key in a new wall. During this, there was a sudden crash, and a large section of the wall collapsed, revealing a long-forgotten inglenook fireplace. The front of the new building was set back just a few inches behind the old one, but, of course, on a much wider frontage.

Certainly in recent years no accommodation has been available for letting to travellers, but back in 1903 to 1905 an advertisement in Kelly’s Directory said that the house offered good accommodation for cyclists and that they sold 'Dartford Celebrated Ales and Stout'. It is this notice which suggests that the owners at that time were the Dartford Brewery Company Ltd., of Lowfleld Street. Dartford. It is unlikely that the owners would have advertised the beers produced by another brewery!

Catering for cyclists continued through the years, and Charles Twist was well known for his cyclists teas, which he served in a tea room located between what is now the pub door and the south west corner of the building. The advent of the war put a stop to this activity and Claude Walters and his wife never resumed it. Instead he had the room converted into a ground level ‘cellar' for storing his beer, with pipes running beneath the floor into the bar.

On the 25th September, 1939. Mr. T. C. (Claude) Walters took over the licence, and began a stay of 23 years, retiring from the house in 1962 at the age of 84. He and his wife made many friends in the village, and a picture of them in the saloon bar appears on page 7. This shows the wall between the saloon and the old public bar. They celebrated their golden wedding in the house in 1956 and Claude had his 80th birthday there on 2nd July 1958. His daughter made him a birthday cake in the shape of a beer barrel. At the time of his retirement he was by far the oldest serving tenant in a Trumans house, and his record is unlikely to be beaten in future.

His parents were licensees of many houses in Gravesend, and he always stayed in or near the licensed trade. He was the first shorthand typist to be employed by Messrs. Porter Putt & Fletcher. After leaving their service he was trained in accountancy by the late W. J. King, and then took a job as chief accountant to Trumans. After a while he married, and took over the Campbell Arms in Northfleet, later moving to other town houses before settling in Meopham. On his retirement he moved to Peace Cottage in Norwood Lane, where he died in 1964.

Further alterations were carried out in 1968. The former public bar on the north side of the building, entered through the still extant doorway, was merged with the saloon, and the former tea room, later the cellar, was also incorporated to make the large saloon bar that we know to-day. An old box room on the north side of the building was formed into a new ‘public' bar and served as such for several years, before being converted into a small dining room. Frank Hutchins, with a long-established reputation for catering, undertook bar catering very soon after taking over, and later, assisted by his family extended this in the new dining room.

The pub has quite large grounds, now partly used as a car park, but William Wooding at least cultivated them to supplement the meagre profits of his day.

LICENSEE LIST

FRENCH George 1836-47

NIVEL John 1849-52

PARKER Frederick 1853-61+ (age 38 in 1861)

WILLIAMS Richford John 1867-71+ (also market gardener age 37 in 1871)

LANGFORD Richard 1874-87 (age 51 in 1881)

BOWLES William 1891-95+ (age 45 in 1891)

MILES Barabbas 1903-05

SHEARMAN Elizabeth 1907+

WOODING William 1915-28 dec'd (age 50 in 1911)

TWIST Charles H 1930-39

WALTERS Thomas Claude 1939-62

HUTCHINGS Francis 1962-75+

THORLEY F G 1988-90

https://pubwiki.co.uk/FoxHounds.shtml

http://www.closedpubs.co.uk/foxhounds.html

Census